Actions and Words
by Ekusukallybaa
Summary: In the aftermath of Orochimaru's Invasion and Itachi's second Tsukuyomi, Sasuke is left with two revelations. The first is that his friends were put in danger because of him. The second is that he will do anything to protect them.
1. The Liar's Guide to Life

Actions and Words

Chapter 1: A Liar's Guide to Life

"Actions speak louder than words."

Sound familiar?

Of course it does. It's a lesson that's hammered into every child's head from an incredibly young age by well-meaning parents or guardians. "Never take anyone's words at face value," they say, "Look at what they do, not what they say," they say.

I remember my own father once tried to teach me something similar.

Of course, since I was a six-year-old child with an inferiority complex the size of the moon back then, I could hardly be blamed for not thinking too much about it at the time.

It really only became relevant around six years after my beloved brother brutally murdered my entire family in front of me, then forced me to relive the experience over and over and over again for three whole days in my mind.

Though of course, you probably already know all about that, unless, of course, you've been living with your head stuck in the ground for the past twenty years.

I digress. If we're going to tell a story, we should start at the beginning.

Hmm…

I guess… there's really only one place _to _start. The place where it all began.

The Forest of Death. During our, during _Team Seven's_, first Chuunin Exam.

Our first taste of true fear.

XXX

From the moment I met Orochimaru, I knew I was going to kill him. Crush him like the worm he was, at some point in the not-to-distant future.

Why? Besides the obvious?

Well, at the time, I thought it was just anger. Anger that Orochimaru was stronger than me. Anger that that _bastard_ had dared to look down on my team and I.

But later on, I realized the real reason was the revelation that the Snake Sannin had brought with him.

I was not strong enough.

I had not been strong enough to protect my family, and in the same way, I was not strong enough to protect Naruto and Sakura from Orochimaru. I was a weakling, and if there was one lesson that Itachi had taught me well, it was that the weak would never be able to protect the things precious to them.

At that time, above all every else… I was willing to sacrifice everything to protect those two. I would have thrown away my pride, dug out my own eyes, given up on my revenge on Itachi. _Everything_.

And I had been certain that that "everything" would be enough to stop whatever the world threw at them.

But then, Orochimaru had arrived and shown me how little my "everything" was in the face of absolute power. He had shattered my delusions, rendered even my ability to sacrifice myself for the people I cared about meaningless.

And so, as he sunk his teeth into my shoulder and marked me with his seal that night, and as my overflowing hatred for that monster threatened to consume me, there was only one thought in my mind.

_I need to become stronger_.

XXX

At the beginning of the third stage of the Chuunin exams, Kakashi pulled me away for personal training to prepare me for my fight against Sabaku no Gaara. There, he taught me his personal technique, the Chidori.

And so, when I returned to Konoha, one month later, I was sure that I had grown stronger.

I thought that because I had learned one technique, and had copied a few others, that made me capable of fighting Itachi. When Kakashi taught me the Chidori, I was certain that _this_ would be my sword. _This_ jutsu would be the weapon I would use to run my brother's black heart through, and end his miserable existence forever. _This_ was the technique that I would use to silence the screams of my dead family members.

I was an arrogant little shit.

That fact was thrown into my face once more when Gaara nearly killed my teammates, transforming into a monster made of sand, a creature that I stood no chance against.

To protect my teammates, my family, I told Naruto to flee with Sakura while I held Gaara off. Of course, the idiot didn't listen.

He wouldn't have been Naruto if he had.

No, instead, while I was crippled by the side-effects of the Cursed Seal, Naruto went and single-handedly defeated the enemy village's greatest weapon, saving me, Sakura, and an entire village.

I should have been jealous. I should have been angry that the dobe had done what I couldn't do.

But instead, there was only one emotion that coursed through my every cell.

Admiration.

Naruto was strong. He was strong not because of hate, like what Itachi preached, but because he protected his friends.

And at that point, I knew that that would be the path that I would follow; it would be one more blow against my brother, and his philosophy.

XXX

But the revelation of my own arrogance was not the only one Orochimaru's invasion brought.

No, I also realized the arrogance of another.

The Leaf.

Konoha had grown weak. They had allowed an S-Rank Missing-nin into their village, and their Hokage had been assassinated as a result. Half the village had been burned down in the chaos, and the death toll ran into the thousands.

This all proved only one thing to me.

Konoha couldn't protect us. Konoha couldn't protect Naruto and Sakura.

This was a conclusion that was only reinforced by an incident that happened a few weeks later.

My first meeting with my brother in six years.

Yes, Itachi had returned to Konoha, and worse, he hadn't even been targeting _me_.

He was after Naruto.

And then, when I had tried to defend my best friend, I had been swatted aside like a fly, and reminded, in an incredibly painful fashion, about the death of my first family.

Of course, at the time, I had no clue about the Kyuubi, and what Akatsuki's true objective was.

My young mind could draw only one conclusion as to why Itachi had targeted Naruto.

It was because of me.

And what made it worse was that Orochimaru had hurt my friends for the _exact same reason_.

So when I woke up after my coma, I knew there was only one thing I could do to protect them, to protect Naruto, Sakura, and even Kakashi.

I had to leave.

I had to escape the Leaf. I had to resolve these problems on my own. I had to kill Orochimaru and Itachi.

And only then, could I return.

And so, I started plotting an escape.

Of course, at the time, it was just a vague plan. It would have required _weeks_ to really formulate something complete, but before I could finish, I was saved from the hassle by the devil himself.

Orochimaru was inviting _me_ to his inner sanctum, to be trained. He was offering me a way of learning his techniques, his strengths and his weaknesses. A way to obtain the power to stop both him and Itachi, and to protect my friends.

He'd dropped everything I needed right in my lap.

And the only price I needed to pay was my soul.

All in all, I think that it was a rather nice bargain.

XXX

Of course, my escape from Konoha did not go unnoticed.

Sakura stopped me first.

I'll admit: when I saw her, I nearly gave in right there.

It was difficult, to betray one's own friends in such a manner, even if I was doing it for their own sakes.

And the worst part was that Sakura hadn't even asked me to stay. No, she had begged me to take her with me.

I was tempted. It would have been so easy. Even if I didn't return her feelings, she was still a precious friend and comrade. Just one word, and I could have taken her with me.

Just one word, and I could have had the companionship I so craved.

But in the end, I was dedicated, and taking Sakura with me would have defeated the purpose of leaving in the first place.

I left her knocked out on a nearby bench and walked away.

I didn't look back.

XXX

Once I completed my transformation and exited that barrel the Sound Four had placed me in, I had the option to flee directly to Orochimaru, but I decided not to.

The reason?

It was simple: Actions speak louder than words.

I knew that they would send a team after me. I knew that Naruto would be a part of that team.

And I knew that Naruto would be the person who would face me at the Valley of the End.

It was actually kind of strange. "Actions speak louder than words," is a phrase that has been hammered into all of us over and over again throughout our lives, and yet…

That idiot, that _dobe_, was the only person who ever seemed to _really_ understand it.

And that was why I knew that we would be able to communicate through our fists. That was why I knew that once we fought, Naruto would be the one person who would truly, _truly_ be able to understand, no matter how subconsciously, and no matter what I said, that I was still the same Sasuke he once knew.

Call me selfish, but I needed that.

I knew that if _he_ knew that, then no matter how much doubt I sowed in the others' hearts, no matter what my _future _actions said…

He would still believe in me.

And that would be enough.

A/N: Have no idea whether or not to continue this, but I like it. Maybe there will be a chapter 2, maybe there won't be. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

And if you did, then please give a round of applause to my Beta, Ser Serendipity. Writing Sasuke's First-person POV is never easy, but he took the mess that was the original chapter and made it _flow_. The end result is much better than I thought it ever could be, and it's all thanks to him.


	2. The Liar's Guide to Team Reunions

Chapter 2: The Liar's Guide to Team Reunions

"H-Hmph! Why should I help you, huh?" the red-haired girl said. Unfortunately, the confrontational tone she started out with was somewhat ruined when she squealed at the end.

I sighed. I admit I had a certain soft-spot for Karin, but that didn't change the fact that girls locked in the throes of love were annoying, no matter which village they were from.

And to be honest, Karin was probably the most annoying of all of them. Not because she was incompetent, like many of the girls from the Academy had been, but because she, like Sakura, _was_ competent, and yet she still turned into a melted pile of jelly whenever I entered her proximity, no matter how hard she tried to pretend otherwise.

But still, as cute as her tsundere act was, I had something I needed from her today, at all costs.

"Karin," I said, giving her a smile that was one half charm, one half cocky arrogance. It was the same one that always got Sakura blushing when I used it on her back in the village. "Please? You're the _only_ one that can, and the only one I _trust_." I put a bit of emphasis on that last part. Mother had always taught me that a woman liked to feel special, and I assumed Karin was no different.

She wasn't.

"O-of course Sasuke- kuun ! W-What do you need?" she _squealed_ again, stretching out the last syllable of the honorific as I barely held back a wince.

That smile may have been a bit too effective.

I shook that thought away a moment later. I had managed to get through to her. Now…

"I need to learn sensory jutsu . Please teach me," I responded, trying to keep my voice impassive.

In a moment, the atmosphere changed. Karin's eyes narrowed and a moment later, she turned away, her hands crossed, and nose upturned. "No," she said flatly.

I blinked. "What?"

I had already done that… that _smile_ at her. What more did she want?

"I said, no!" she repeated.

"_Why?_"

"Hmph! You… you're trying to replace me, aren't you? You don't want to have to spend time with me, so you want to learn my skills so you can throw me away!"

I blinked again.

"What." There wasn't even a question this time.

"Y-you heard me, you _bastard_!" she half-snarled, half-pouted. Somehow. "And to think I… I…"

She _sniffled_.

Oh _damn_ it. She was going to cry, wasn't she? And I couldn't even tell why! What had I done to deserve this? I mean, I had lied to a few people, but seriously? It's not like I had stab-

A single tear ran down Karin's cheek.

-bed my best friend through the chest or something! What was I supposed to do?

_There is one thing…_ that treacherous little voice at the back of my head whispered.

No! No! That was _completely_ unacceptable! She somehow became even _more_ annoying after the last time I did it!

_Well,_ the voice pointed out reasonably, _It's not like you have any other choice…_

…

I just _knew_ I was going to regret this.

I decided to do it before any hint of sanity I had left reasserted itself.

"Karin…" I leaned over and softly whispered in her ear, "Karin… please, don't cry."

The tears disappeared almost instantly, replaced by tomato-red blush.

"S-Sasuke-kun?"

"Karin…" I continued on, looking in her eye and speaking with all the sincerity I could muster. "I would _never_ just throw you aside. You are important to me, my precious friend."

Somehow, the blush became even _redder_.

"I just want to learn more about you…" I whispered. "I want to understand you…"

I hadn't even realize that it was possible for a human to turn such a shade of neon red. She was nearly the same color as her hair.

"So please, teach me?"

"Y-y-yeeeessshhhh!" she squealed a third time.

Then she passed out.

I sighed.

What had I done to deserve this?

XXX

Ironically, the most useful skill I learned under Orochimaru's tutelage was not one that the snake himself taught me. In fact, I learned it from _Karin_ of all people.

Chakra sensing.

After just six months of tutelage, I was not nearly as skilled at it as Karin was, but I had come quite far. I had practiced enough that my range now extended for a significant distance around me. I was even skilled enough to passively sense chakra signatures around me with minimal thought.

Unlike Karin, I was not able to track people half a continent away based off of a vague description of that person given to me by a friend, but then, I had not expected to be able to in any case.

Of course, that figure assumed that the person in question is only true in cases when the person in question didn't just level an entire forest with a single burst of chakra.

To my finely-honed senses, it felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull, then proceeded to pour molten lava into my ears.

I lost my balance and fell to my knees, clutching the sides of my head, and through the intense pain, thanking my lucky stars that I was in my personal quarters in the North Base, instead of outside, where such a show of weakness would have been viewed with suspicion at best, and as an invitation to be attacked at worst.

It took me a few moments to recover as I slowly rose to my feet with a grimace, that molten lava still pouring through my skull, pounding through my arteries as I got used to its presence. I glanced around, confirming that no one had been around to see me fall, then let out a slow breath and frowned.

What _was_ that? It was immense, _terrifyingly _powerful. I had never sensed something so immense, so purely malevolent before in my life.

I continued moving forward, contemplating going to investigate.

Then the chakra disappeared, and its massive, all-pervading presence in my senses was replaced by three others: two familiar, and one not so much.

Orochimaru's chakra, for lack of a better term, was _slimy_. It was difficult to get a grasp of it, and even more difficult to try and define the complexity of the madness it reflected. Like a corrosive acid, it would seep into my mind and subtly try to force its decay upon me.

Kabuto's, on the other hand, was _slippery_. It was like an eel that would escape from my grasp no matter how hard I gripped, and while Orochimaru's was unreadable due to complexity, Kabuto's was because of the way it was nigh-ungraspable. I suspected that this was at least partially due to the malleability of the spy's own identity: one moment a polite, affable young man, and the next, a sadistic sociopath who took gleeful pleasure out of torturing and killing innocents.

Sometimes it felt like even _he_ didn't know who he was.

But the third, the third was the _interesting_ one.

However, after three years of living with Orochimaru, I had at least grown to know the chakra of almost every single one of his important subordinates.

This man was definitely not one of them, and yet, the amount and quality of his chakra separated him from the typical trash which inhabited the Snake's armies.

The chakra itself was unfamiliar, and… cold, but with a hint of warmth, I suppose. Something breaking through to the surface.

It was also oddly familiar, despite the fact that I was certain I had never met its source before. It took me a moment to understand why.

This chakra… it reminded me of myself, of who I used to be.

I was not all that surprised when that strange chakra started advancing towards me. This was not the first time that one of Orochimaru's _visitors_ had wanted to meet me, after all.

I changed my course and moved towards the central chamber, ready to greet him.

XXX

"You're late."

The words echoed around the room as Orochimaru, Kabuto and a boy around my age, with black hair and pale skin walked in.

I ignored him, electing instead to look over at my teacher, as loathe as I was to call him that.

"You promised to teach me a new jutsu this evening, Orochimaru."

I saw a small flash of annoyance flit across Kabuto's face. "Again with that disrespectful attitude…"

I almost snorted in amusement before settling for pointedly ignoring the medic.

As if I actually _had_ any respect for Orochimaru.

"It is fine, Kabuto." The snake said, that sickly-sweet, slimy voice of his seeping into my ears. "And do not worry, Sasuke-kun." I did not react to the annoying honorific. That was what Orochimaru and Kabuto would have wanted. "I picked up a present to make it up to you."

I didn't respond, but my silence spoke volumes.

"This boy," he said, pointing at our unexpected guest, "is a former Konoha shinobi, just like you. I thought you might have fun together reminiscing about the good old days back in the village."

For the first time, I focused on our guest. Dark, neatly cut hair, which, when combined with his pale, near-white skin made him look more like a living mannequin than a human. His features were perfect, beautiful, like a doll's, but one thing ruined the effect.

That utterly disgusting smile he was wearing.

I could already tell I wasn't going to like him.

I was halfway tempted to ask whether the snake and the medic would have liked to join us, but decided against it. Knowing Orochimaru, he may have actually taken me up on the offer just to piss me off a bit further.

The guest took that opportunity to speak.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun." The greeting, as his smile, was utterly disgusting. "My name is Sai. It's good to m-"

"Shut up," I cut him off bluntly.

Just that much was enough to annoy me. I already wanted to crush that perfect little façade of his and expose him for what he really was, underneath that lifeless smile and nauseating voice.

Sai sighed. "How saddening. Even if I try to smile, it seems people cannot help but dislike me. Naruto-kun reacted much the same as you did."

My eyes widened. He knew Naruto?

Sai, on the other hand, just kept rambling along, completely ignoring my reaction.

"I get the feeling that I'll get along much better with you than I did with Naruto-kun though."

His prattling was starting to annoy me again.

My sharingan began to whirl as I looked at him, weaving the genjutsu. A moment later, our guest collapsed, eyes wide, and sweat running down his forehead.

It took him a few moments to recover after that, but when he did, he was breathing heavily, though that smile was right back in place.

This time it was Orochimaru who spoke again.

"Kukukuku…"

Just after that, I almost regretted shutting Sai up. Almost.

"You shouldn't anger Sasuke-kun too much. His temper is even shorter than mine."

I nearly rolled my eyes.

At least my "tempers" didn't lead to dozens of corpses whenever I had them.

"I'm done with this idiot," I said, rising to my feet. "Orochimaru, train me now."

"I've heard a lot about you from Naruto-kun. He's been trying to find you for these past three years."

I froze, then closed my eyes, the images burned into my sharingan suddenly brought back up to the surface.

_Bastard!_

_We're friends, aren't we?_

_I'm definitely going to bring you back!_

"Yeah…" I said, opening my eyes. "I know."

Sai pulled himself to his feet, and dusted himself off.

"Sakura-san told me that Naruto-kun views you as his real brother, that he would sacrifice anything for you."

I tilted my head down, letting my long hair cover my mouth from their eyes, and smiled slightly.

Don't go back on your word indeed.

But when I responded, it was a simple monosyllable.

"Hn."

And then I walked out, leaving that ringing in the air.

XXX

"Who is he, really?" I asked Orochimaru as the smooth sounds of my blade cutting through the air filled the area.

Orochimaru's body contorted as he slid underneath a particularly vicious blow I aimed at his eyes and followed with an immediate counter towards the stomach. I caught his fist on the blunt side of one of my kunai and used the force to launch myself into a backflip, retreating backwards to assess my opponent.

"Who are you talking about?" The snake smiled.

My eyes narrowed in annoyance. I had no doubt that my sensei knew _exactly_ who I was talking about.

"That loser, Sai , " I said at last, judging, as usual that allowing the Snake to see me angry would not be to my advantage.

Orochimaru's smile widened as his long, unnatural tongue came out, cleaning his lips of the flecks of blood dotting it.

"It is unlike you to take interest in someone like him."

I gritted my teeth, facing him while remaining stonily silent. Seeing that he didn't seem to be ready to answer my question I flashed forward, my blade lashing out towards the Snake's neck as I covered the distance in an instant. Orochimaru's own Sword of Kusanagi came up to block it just in time before the sound of a thousand chirping birds filled the air.

_Chidori Nagashi!_

The current pulsed around my body, immediately electrifying everything in my immediate vicinity. The hand holding the opposing sword faltered as I channeled numbing lightning through it.

Orochimaru grit his teeth but reacted almost immediately, his body contorting unnaturally as he twisted around my follow-up strike that would have no doubt cut off his head if it had struck. However, his movements were sluggish, slowed by strength of the electric current running through his body just a moment before.

Sensing an opportunity, I immediately pursued my prey , aiming another strike that would cleave his head from his body.

Orochimaru did not even attempt to stop it. Instead, he aimed the sword in his left hand at his other and drew a single, precise cut through the palm before flashing through a set of handseals and slamming his hand on the ground.

"Tch ! "

The clearing was suddenly filled with smoke as a massive gate appeared in front of me, my sword stopping with a clang as it struck into its hard surface. I quickly sprang backwards, retreating to a safe distance to observe the situation.

"Kukukukuku." That annoying laughter filled the air again.

"You have indeed become strong, Sasuke-kun, but you won't be able to defeat me with just that."

I stopped and waited. Orochimaru made no move to strike.

"You still haven't answered my question," I finally said. It seemed that the session for today was over.

With a small spike of vicious satisfaction I realized that that last call may have been just a bit too close for the Snake's tastes. He was shaken, even if he didn't show it.

"I did not," he responded, letting the Rashoumon Gate disappear in a flash of smoke as he stepped forward.

I stared at him, unblinking.

Orochimaru smiled once more. "How very curious you are. What is the cause of this sudden interest? Is it because he mentioned Naruto-kun?"

I blinked, but remained silent. My reasons were none of his business .

"Kukukuku… very well. I will satisfy your curiosity this once. It is my duty as your teacher, after all, is it not?"

I felt my fist tighten around the hilt of my sword before I forced myself to relax . The damn snake seemed to take a sort of malicious pleasure in constantly needling me, and letting him succeed was unacceptable. Fortunately, his next words washed away any irritation I had left.

"He is a member of Ne," the Sannin said.

"Ne? Danzo's ANBU unit?"

I knew about them. I had heard much about them in my youth. Most children of clan heads and jounin did.

The shadows, the darkness, the ROOTs that supported the village. Led by Shimura Danzo, personal friend and rival of the Third Hokage Hiruzen, the Foundation was feared by both friend and foe alike. It was said that Ne ANBU were utterly loyal to the village, willing to do anything to protect it. From a young age, they were indoctrinated into Danzo's service, trained to be utterly emotionless tools.

I found it to be a disgusting practice, but that did not change my one question.

"What is one of them doing here?" I asked.

"What do you think?" the Snake shot back.

I already knew.

Ne were strong. Ne were emotionless, and above all Ne were _loyal_ to the village. I had been told that over and over.

But then again, who determined what was best for the village? As far as I could tell, most Ne ANBU were emotionless tools. They possessed very little autonomy, and less free will. Who were they to determine what was best for Konoha as a whole?

That meant that they had guidance from Danzo. While nominally they served Konoha, in truth, they were loyal to only him.

And now, Danzo appeared to be working with Orochimaru.

I suppressed a shiver. If Danzo had turned against the Leaf, the number of people who would die…

I would need to act soon to remove my teacher from the picture.

Orochimaru's poisonous smile widened at the look of shock that had no doubt flashed across my eyes.

With a flourish, I spun around, sheathed my blade and walked away.

We were done here.

XXX

His_ voice echoed in my skull_

"_You weren't even worth killing," he whispered. "That was why you lived when others died. Because you were too weak."_

"_Shut up," I snarled. "Shut up!"_

"_And do you know what else? It is because you are too weak that you can't protect them now._

_A slash of the sword, and Kakashi fell, bleeding out of the gash he had left in his neck._

"_You lack hatred, Sasuke. That is why you cannot defeat me."_

"_That's not true!"_

"_And yet, you still cannot stop me."_

_The sword lashed out again, and Sakura's head flew through the air, landing on the ground right in front of me, its face twisted in a sick parody of a smile._

"_Tell me, foolish little brother, will you continue to cling to your idiocy, even as I kill your friends in front of you? Will you not give in to your hatred?"_

"_I will _never_," I emphasized, "do what you want."_

_Itachi closed his eyes in a gesture I would have considered sad if it had not been on _his_ face._

"_Then you have made your choice. Now pay the price."_

_And this time, when the blade lashed out, the corpse that fell to the ground was Naruto's._

"_No… No! NO!"_

_And then, the world dissolved as his voice echoed once more._

"_One second done. Two days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds remain."_

_ I screamed. _

XXX

I noticed the chakra behind me as soon as I awakened. It was more acute than the sweat running down my forehead, than the scream I had crushed down as I woke up.

"What are _you_ doing here?" I asked the familiar presence standing behind me.

I didn't think that Orochimaru would have let him out of his chambers so quickly. Which meant...

"Oh? So you figured it out?" I could almost _hear_ that annoying smile of his. "What a shame. I had hoped to finish this quietly, though it seems that I still have the advantage."

I didn't contradict him. There was something right behind me, which had his chakra in it.

There was a short pause, then...

"What is your objective?" I asked.

"Danzou-sama's goal is your death, Sasuke-kun."

I felt my eyes narrow, before a small grin appeared on my face. I crushed it down an instant later.

So that was Danzo's aim. He was never planning on betraying Konoha in the first place.

Never before had someone declaring his intention to kill me been so damn reassuring .

"But…"

There was a pause, as he seemed to struggle to find the exact words he needed to express himself.

"My goal… is to bring you back to Konoha."

I blinked.

That was unexpected. Weren't Ne agents supposed to be dedicated to the mission above all else? What had led to this change of heart?

Sai seemed to take my silence as a cue to continue.

"Of course," he said, and I could almost _hear_ that annoying smile behind that voice, "my original goal was your death. But…"

He paused, seemingly contemplating something.

"I have decided… that I want to protect your bond, that bond of friendship, with them."

I blinked. It was fairly obvious who the "them" that Sai was referring to were.

Idiots. Both of them.

But despite my thoughts, I couldn't stop the smile that rose to my lips, once that I once again cut off immediately.

It was good to know that they still hadn't given up on me.

But even then…

"And…" I asked calmly, "what if I refuse?"

Sai seemed a bit amused at that.

"Well then," he responded, his voice the picture of politeness, "I'd just have to _insist_."

And the chakra constructs that had been looming behind me pounced, attempting to bind my body.

I _squeezed_.

And the room _exploded_.

Whoops .

XXX

When the smoke finally cleared, all that was left of what had once been my quarters was a massive crater in the earth which I now stood at the edge of, looking down. Sai lay at the bottom, having been knocked down from the backlash of his broken jutsu.

"Ugh…" he pulled himself up, "Impressive. It takes quite a bit of brute force to shatter my jutsu…"

The wind blew through my hair as I watched him impassively.

And then I noticed a three unfamiliar chakras at the edge of my sensing capabilities.

More enemies?

Then, _she_ burst through what had formerly been the door to my room.

"You!" she snarled, "Just how many more times are you going to betray us! After everyth-"

I tuned her voice out in favor of drinking in her appearance.

She had changed, _grown_. While the Sakura I had left had been a girl who had shown signs of becoming a fine kunoichi one day, the Sakura I saw now had achieved that.

Her hair was cut short, just like the day I had left, but her body had filled out, grown fuller. Her face, which could have been described as "pretty" the last time I had met her… was still just pretty. But there was a confidence there, a certain _poise_, for lack of a better term, which she had lacked the last time we had seen each other.

I felt a rush of pride in my gut, which I quickly smashed down. Smiling now would only blow my cover.

And then, I noticed her arm. She was injured. I crushed that sentiment down immediately. I couldn't afford to show it here.

She hadn't even noticed me yet. For some reason, that annoyed me.

"Sakura."

She froze, her hand falling from Sai's lapel.

And then, slowly, ever so slowly, she turned to face me.

What I saw in those eyes was something beyond mere happiness.

Love, hate, longing, obsession, self-loathing, shock, each only encompassed a small piece of what I saw framed in Sakura's face in that instant.

It was almost indescribably beautiful, seeing that I could still evoke such deep emotions in her.

"Sasuke...kun?" When she finally spoke, her voice was no louder than a whisper.

But even then, it carried perfectly to where I was standing.

"Still 'Sasuke-kun'?" I wanted to ask.

But I remained silent.

And a moment later, the silence was shattered by the sound of rapid footsteps.

This time, the person who emerged from the former door was also someone I knew well.

I was almost disappointed when I saw him. Blonde hair, blue eyes, that same idiotic look on his face as always, that same terrible-looking orange vest.

I squinted. Wait… was that a hint of _black_? In _Naruto's_ clothing?

Hm. Maybe he had changed. Just a bit.

Still an idiot though.

Not that I necessarily considered that a bad thing.

He winced as he looked up at the sun, closing his eyes instinctively.

And then, in a single moment that lasted an eternity, he opened them.

Those emotions that had run through Sakura's eyes… I saw them a hundredfold in Naruto's, mirrored with his growing shock as he slowly started to recognize me

"Sasu...ke…"

There was a silence that ran through the clearing after that. Both of them continued staring, as if they couldn't believe that I was _there_.

"Naruto, huh?" I finally broke the silence after a pause. "So you're here too."

The fourth chakra began to move, slowly pacing towards me.

"Then…" I continued, "I assume that Kakashi is with you as well."

Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I looked at the last member of the team.

He was young, with fish-like eyes. His brown hair was held in place by modified forehead protector, and he wore a piece of cloth that stretched just under his chin

"Sorry," the newcomer spoke, "I'm not Kakashi-san. I'm here in his place."

I blinked.

Unfortunate.

"Now," he continued, "we, the new Team Kakashi, will proceed to capture and return you to Konoha."

I looked them over.

"Team Kakashi, huh?"

What a joke. How could they call their team that when Kakashi wasn't even there?

But I was broken out of that train of thought by the sound of steel being drawn.

Sai held his ANBU-issue tanto out in front of him.

Sakura's eyes widened. "Sai! I knew it, you're-" she stopped as the rest of the retrieval team readied themselves.

"So, he's my replacement?" I broke in. Those three were probably still under the impression that Sai was here to assassinate me. "He said something about wanting to protect my 'bond' with you guys."

Sakura gasped. "Sai, wasn't your mission to-"

"Yes, my secret mission was to assassinate Sasuke-kun, but I no longer care about those orders. From now on, I want to act of my own free will. And… I think that Naruto-kun can help me remember, what it was like to feel. I think… that it was something very important to me."

He faced forward, looking me straight in the eye.

"I don't know very much about you, but I know that there has to be a reason why Naruto-kun and Sakura-san came all this way just for you. They believe that their bonds with you are worth going all out to protect!"

His eyes dimmed slightly. "I… may not understand them myself, but you should! Isn't that right, Sasuke-kun?"

I closed my eyes.

"Oh, I do."

I remembered…

Team Kakashi's first day. The bell test, the day that Kakashi taught us the meaning of teamwork.

The mission to the Land of Waves. Zabuza. Haku. My "death".

The First Exam, Naruto screaming out like the idiot he was at the end.

The Forest of Death, our battle against Orochimaru.

The preliminary matches, my declaration to Naruto that I wanted to fight him too.

The invasion, and my desire to protect my friends.

And of course, the Valley of the End.

"But…" I continued, "that has no meaning now."

Naruto let out a gasp.

"My only goal now is Itachi. I have no need of any 'bonds' to end his life."

Ideals and goals were merely ideas. Power was necessary in order to actually change the world.

My desire to protect alone was not enough. I had needed power to do it.

My bonds were no longer necessary, since they had already provided everything I had needed for that goal: the drive and means to grow stronger.

Now, they were merely a distraction. A reward that I had not yet earned back, singing its sweet song, trying to tempt me from the path of what had to be done.

"Then why…" Naruto spoke at last.

I turned to look at him.

"Then why didn't you kill me back then, Sasuke! Is that your idea of giving up on your bonds? Of not relying on them?!"

I stared.

And then, I smiled.

It must not have been a very pleasant one, though, given how the four members of the team stiffened immediately.

"It's simple. Back then, I was still weak. I did not have the will necessary to do what needed to be done." That unpleasant, forced smile on my face grew wider. "But now…"

In an instant, I disappeared, moving so quickly that it seemed that I had teleported right in front of my old friend, one hand resting on his shoulder.

"Come to think of it," I whispered in his ear, "your dream was to become Hokage, right? You should have spent that time training, instead of pointlessly chasing after me."

There was a silence in the area.

"Someone who can't even save a single friend isn't worthy of calling himself Hokage," he said at last. "Isn't that right... Sasuke?"

I smirked.

"If that's your answer," I responded, "then I'd just like to see how long you can dance , _Naruto_!"

XXX

I activated my sharingan, grabbing Naruto by the lapel of his shirt and flinging him at Sakura , who caught him, skidding back from the sheer force of his motion.

In the next moment, Sai's blade was swung at my side. Instead of dodging, I reached over, grabbed the hilt of my own blade, and drew it partially out of its sheathe, catching Sai's on its edge.

Then, I released it, letting it fall back in as I leapt up, spun around and kicked the dark-haired youth in the face, sending him flying across the ground.

The fourth member of the team held his hand up, and a large piece of wood shot out.

Mokuton? But that ability had died with the first Hokage!

No. No time for hesitation.

_Chidori Nagashi!_

The wooden block came within three feet of me, then shattered to pieces as the electric current ran through it.

That was when Sakura charged.

With my sharingan, I could see. Her chakra was gathering in her hand, and could tell that I would be in trouble if that blow struck.

So I did exactly what she would have expected.

I charged.

Three steps.

My right foot was forward. Sakura drew back her fist preparing herself to strike. I grasped the hilt of my blade in my hand.

Two steps.

My left foot was forward. Sakura's fist began advancing to strike at the center of my mass. I started to draw my Kusanagi, while my other hand drew back, preparing for a punch that she no doubt thought was my true counterattack.

One step.

Her fist was an inch from my body, just about to strike…

And then, I pivoted, my right foot turning ninety degrees as my left moved around. Sakura's punch missed my chest by a hair, and I _felt_ the shockwave as it struck the area where I had just been standing.

And then, using the force of that motion, I drew my Kusanagi from its sheathe, driving the hilt into her stomach with bone-crushing force.

But before I could follow up, I was interrupted by a sudden spike of chakra behind me. Without even bothering to turn around, I leap straight up into the air as a cavalcade of roots struck the location where I had just been standing a moment before.

Then….

"Rasengan!"

Tch!

I spun, grabbing Naruto's arm just before the jutsu struck, and slamming my forehead into his nose.

Then, flipped over and kicked him away in a single movement before closing my eyes.

Four enemies.

Sakura was on the ground, still wheezing from my last blow. Naruto was still on his trip back down after I had kicked him. The team leader seemed to moving through handseals for his next jutsu, and Sai…

Sai was hidden behind a small outcropping of rocks, seemingly attempting to ambush me. Unfortunately, I also couldn't directly strike him from this position.

Instead, I activated the small seals I had placed on the bandages around my wrists.

_Kuchiyose: Raiko Kenka!_

I spun, and flung the kunai that had suddenly appeared in my hands all around me.

Two flew down at Naruto, piercing both of his hands. Three stabbed into Sakura's leg, preventing her from getting up. two more flew at the brown-haired man, forcing him to leap up to dodge, and the last one moved towards Sai's position.

And then, I threw three more.

Two flew at the kunai that had just been heading at Kakashi's replacement, striking them and flying off of at a perfect angle to hit the man in the man in his hands, breaking his seal sequence. The other three moved towards the ones I had sent at Sai, hitting it and reflecting so that it struck at the ANBU's blind spot in his left hand.

I opened my eyes, and landed on my feet, rising to face them again.

Or at least I would have if I hadn't been forced to dodge as another block of wood nearly slammed into my stomach.

_Wha-_

I leapt back to the position from which I had started, scanning the area.

Every member of Team Kakashi now had at least one kunai sticking out of one of their limbs, preventing them from moving or using their jutsu.

But… there was also a fifth person who had just arrived. He appeared to be identical to the leader of the team.

"A clone, huh…"

Or at least I thought it was. Even my eyes couldn't see any differences between it and the original.

Well, if it was a clone, there would be no problems with killing it.

I reached back to grasp the hilt of my blade. Then…

"Kukukukuku…"

Naruto's face twisted into a grimace of fury.

"_Orochimaru_…" he snarled.

I had some trouble controlling my own anger. I would have failed completely if I hadn't noticed near the beginning of the battle that the Snake was watching us.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

He smiled that annoying smile of his at me.

"I notice…" he responded, not answering my question, "that you did not kill any of them."

I remained impassive.

"They could still be useful," I responded, "Konoha is also Akatsuki's enemy, after all."

His smile grew wider.

"Kukuku… Such a _practical_ view on the situation. I expected you to be more emotional, considering that this was your long-awaited reunion with your team."

I felt my eyes narrow involuntarily. "If all you're going to do is spout worthless platitudes, then I'll be going now."

He stared at me for a moment, then turned to address the team beneath us.

"It looks like you live for another day," he spoke.

"My goodness, Sasuke-kun," another voice broke in, "you really are far too kind for your own good."

I looked over to see Kabuto appear next to me.

"Kabuto! You escaped?!" Naruto growled.

The silver-haired medic simply smirked in response.

"Kindness?" I responded, ignoring Naruto, "No. Just practicality."

The man shrugged. "Well, either way, the result is the same. With the three of us in agreement, there is no need to do anything else."

He turned around, and the three of us formed seals. But before we could disappear, we were interrupted by a sudden influx of red chakra.

That was when I finally noticed something about Naruto. Those strange marks on his cheeks had elongated and turned red. His eyes had become catlike, and had also changed to a bloody scarlet.

And that chakra… it was just like at the Valley of the End.

Just like that searing sensation that had eaten my mind just a few hours ago.

I needed to stop him. Now.

And so, I looked into his eyes, and the world _twisted_.

XXX

My ears were assaulted by the sound of dripping water.

Then, I felt the sound of malicious laughter echoed in my mind.

_**This is our chance, **_**Naruto**_**.**_

I shivered. That voice… it sent shivers up my spine. It made me feel like a rabbit before a fox.

Seemingly not even noticing me, the voice continued.

_**Let us show him how powerful we are, when we combine our abilities.**_

That _laughter_ sounded once more.

_**What's wrong? **_

I opened my eyes.

Then I saw it. A bubbling mass of malicious power, slowly taking its form in front of Naruto.

_**Why do you hesitate?**_

Then, it started taking a corporeal form. A single, blood-red eye appeared on its face, along with a toothy smile. It's face was twisted, still malformed, but even then, I could tell what it was.

A monstrous fox.

It took me only a split instant to connect the dots.

The Kyuubi.

_So. This was the source of Naruto's power…_

_**You need my power, do you not?**_

Each word was spoken slowly, emphasized with a poisonous sort of anticipation.

_**Now…**_

I grit my teeth, trying to push down my fear.

_**Who do you want to kill?**_

Naruto stood before it, shaking.

"You…" he finally said, "stay away from me!"

The beast eye widened, reflecting its surprise for a moment before narrowing in contemplation. Then, its skin drew back further from around its teeth.

_**What are you afraid of?**_

"Shut up! I… I don't need your power any longer!"

This time, it's teeth parted as it laughed. Naruto showed no reaction, and I too remained silent.

_**Up until now, you have asked over and over again for me to lend it to you.**_

Naruto didn't respond. The Kyuubi laughed once more.

_**You **_**know**_**. You **_**know**_** that you are **_**powerless**_** on your own. You need me, Naruto.**_

There was a silence, and when it was broken, it was by the last person I had expected to do so.

"That's right."

The words leaked out of my mouth before I could stop them. Naruto spun in sudden shock, and the Kyuubi's eyes widened.

"Naruto can't do anything on his own. He's an idiot, a moron, and an utter loser."

"S-Sasuke?"

"But…" I continued, ignoring my friend, "do you still think that he can't do anything, even when I'm here to help him?"

I placed my hand on the beast's snout, and it's eyes widened in sudden comprehension as it saw my eyes.

_**I see… you are an Uchiha!**_

I blinked. This thing knew of the Uchiha clan?

Of course it did. The tablet had said as much.

_**You have done well to become this powerful.**_

"H-how are you here?" Naruto asked, finally seemingly regaining his wits.

I smirked.

"I see," I continued, not bothering to respond. "So this thing is the source of your hidden abilities, Naruto. I never expected _you_ of all people to have the Kyuubi no Youko inside of you."

_**You… you are able to see me within him because of your cursed lineage, and that **_**loathsome**_** Sharingan of yours.**_

"It seems that this isn't your first time seeing a Sharingan," I responded after a short pause, "Which means that you truly are the mighty Nine-Tails."

_**You… with the power of those eyes, you remind me of Uchiha Madara. But your chakra…**_

It laughed once more, the sound of it shaking the inside of my mind.

_**different**** from him. And yet, you are also the same.**_

"What are you talking about?" I snarled.

It let out a low growl, and I realized it was laughing.

**_Eyes famed for their perceptive capabilities, and yet their user remains as blind as ever._**

Its lips pulled back further from its teeth.

_**Be careful, little Uchiha, lest your arrogance be your undoing**__**.**_

My eyes narrowed, and I sneered.

"Shut up," I responded bluntly, "and disappear."

I _squeezed_.

And the Kyuubi's form _shattered_.

XXX

I had returned to the real world. Orochimaru and Kabuto were looking at me worriedly, both immediately schooled their features a moment later. On the other hand, Naruto's face reflected only pure shock.

"Kukukuku…. Impressive, Sasuke-kun. Suppressing the Kyuubi is no small feat."

I didn't respond.

Kabuto chuckled at that, then turned to face the retrieval team once more. "As Orochimaru-sama was saying before Naruto-kun so rudely interrupted him, we will be going now."

The three of us each formed a single hand-seal.

Then, we slowly began to disappear as the specialized shunshin took effect.

"Please do try to take out at least one more member of Akatsuki for us," Orochimaru said, as we began to move.

The last thing I saw before the flame consumed me completely was the look of absolute despair on Naruto's face.

XXX

After that, Orochimaru transferred our party to a new hideout. Over the next day, I had a lot of time to think.

I had been keeping close tabs on my old friends, and I knew that Naruto had been off with Jiraiya, traveling around Konoha for the past three years.

That was the main reason I had been able to rest easy while training with Orochimaru. As long as Naruto was with Jiraiya, I knew that Itachi would not try to take him and risk failure.

But if he had been sent after me, then that meant that Naruto had returned.

I was out of time. I needed to start moving as soon as possible

And that was why, when I woke up one one day, two weeks after meeting with the retrieval team, I knew.

Today was the day.

It was time for Orochimaru to die.

**A/N**: Well, here's the second chapter! And it only took me three months to write!

I apologize for the massive amounts of canon rehash, though hopefully, I managed to intersperse it with enough original content to keep it interesting.

Anyways, many thanks to my fellow members of the Awesome Authors Coalition, without whose help this chapter would never have been written due to lack of motivation.

**Jutsu Glossary**:

Chidori Nagashi (Chidori Current): Sasuke spreads out the electrical discharge from his Chidori, allowing him to channel it around his body. The current that is created is strong enough to numb his enemies' bodies while damaging them at the same time. He can also channel it into the ground to increase its range.

Kuchiyose: Rashoumon (Summoning: Rashoumon): Allows the user to summon a menacing gate which provides tremendous defense against physical attacks.

Kuchiyose: Raiko Kenka (Summoning: Lightning Flash Blade Creation): The user places several seals with hidden weapon stores around their body, and is able to instantly unseal and utilize them in battle.


	3. The Liar's Guide to Revenge

Chapter 3: The Liar's Guide to Revenge

I suppose I should preface this by saying that if I had had it my way, I would have waited for at least another week before making my attempt on my teacher's life.

Orochimaru had been weakened, yes, and his body was still rejecting him, but at the same time, he was one of the Sannin, a man with over thirty years more of experience as a shinobi than I had.

Who knew what tricks such a warrior would have up his sleeves? I knew going in that I would need every advantage I could get.

Unfortunately, I now had to throw one of those advantages away due to unforeseen circumstances.

I no longer had the luxury of time. Akatsuki already probably knew Naruto was back, and if Itachi was still after him, he would probably complete whatever mission he was currently working on for the shady organization before going after him immediately.

Two weeks was the most I could justify waiting before beginning to pursue my brother.

Yes.

Two weeks to prepare.

And one to catch him.

Assuming, of course, that I survived until the end of the day.

XXX

I was in a small clearing, a couple of miles from Orochimaru's base. Far enough to be out of sight, but not so far that by the time I returned, Kabuto and his men would be wondering about where I was.

I bit my thumb, and moved through the seals before slamming it down.

_Kuchiyose no jutsu_.

A massive cloud of smoke spread out in front of me, and when it finally disappeared, all that was left was a single, snake, his body so massive that I looked like an ant before him.

Manda stared down at me, scrutinizing. I could feel his annoyance, leaking out into the air through his chakra. A tongue, just as gigantic as the snake's size would imply slid out of his mouth as he _hissed_.

"Uchiha..." the great snake finally said, "Why have you called me? And why do I see no sacrifices?"

I paused, looking up, then smirked. "That's because you won't be getting any."

I felt a shiver travel up my spine at the rush of killing intent, but didn't let it show.

"_You_... You _dare_?" His absolute outrage at my tone lent his voice a booming quality that left my ears ringing. "You _dare_ to call upon my magnificence for no purpose? Tell me why I should not kill you, here and now!"

I looked up at the snake, and my smirk shifted into a cold smile. "I will end Orochimaru tonight." I declared, my voice wintry, "You will not interfere."

It was not a request.

There was a silence, as Manda processed the utter absurdity of what I had just said. Then, the great snake laughed mockingly.

"Oh? So that is why you summoned me? To gain my cooperation?"

And at that, I lowered my head, closing my eyes, my smile widening.

Manda seemed to take that as a sign of submission, foolish and prideful as he was. "Very well, Uchiha. Orochimaru has grown weak, and his end is coming. But you will give me many sacrifices in ret-"

"No," I cut him off.

The snake actually seemed taken aback by that, judging by the sudden silence that rang through the air. "No? You say no to my wishes, to my generosity? Foolish child! You will pa-"

"You misunderstand," I continued, ending his ranting before it could start, "Your desires here are meaningless. No one else is going to die because of your or Orochimaru's arrogance after today. Not anymore."

"Hah!" Manda roared, "You wish to stop _me_ from doing as I wish? Do you even know what I am capable of? Your requests are rejected!"

I raised my head slowly. "I know _exactly _what you are capable of, Manda." The expression on my face at this point could probably be described as downright _maniacal_. "But you see, that is ultimately meaningless as well."

I opened my eyes.

"After all, I wasn't _requesting_ your help."

Twin sharingan swirled, and Manda suddenly froze, before his body lost its strength, collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut.

"I was _demanding_ it."

XXX

Afterwards, I returned to my room, to rest and meditate in preparation for my battle.

The genjutsu I had placed on Manda would keep him under my thrall for several weeks. More than enough for what I planned to do.

With Manda subdued, there was only last loose end to wrap up here before I moved on to the main course.

Sixteen targets, all suspended around the room, eight in the blind spots.

I closed my eyes. Today, it would be perfect.

I leapt.

A quarter of a second.

Sixteen kunai, two between each finger. One for each target

A half of a second.

Eight kunai flew out, arcing through the air as they drew into a path away from the targets.

Three-quarters of a second.

The other eight flew out, and struck the first eight, ricocheting. Each kunai arced towards its target

One second.

The sound of metal striking wood rang through the room.

I landed, my knees bending slightly to absorb the impact, eyes still closed. Then, I opened them and observed my handiwork.

Sixteen hits, all dead center.

A tiny smile appeared on my face, nothing more than the slight upturning of my lips.

I was ready.

XXX

As I moved towards Orochimaru's quarters, I allowed the flames of my rage to grow, hotter and hotter. Emotions I had pushed down for the past three years slowly came to the surface, as I remembered, more and more, just _how long_ I had been waiting for this day.

I remembered the faces of Orochimaru's victims, living humans I had been forced to watch being dismembered and dissected in front of me as I could do nothing but stare into their eyes and try to convey how sorry I was, to tell them that one day, they would have their vengeance.

Entire families, entire villages, kidnapped and taken for no reason. Entire communities destroyed for the arrogance of one man. Of one _Snake_.

People who had lived their lives peacefully for generations, wiped out pointlessly, just so that this egomaniac could gain more power.

I remembered as I stood, watching that monster claim more and more lives, growing stronger from the sacrifices of the innocent.

I remembered, with vicious satisfaction, that look of fear that passed over Orochimaru's face every time he thought that I was not watching when he looked at me, that fear of his own death, that fear of his inevitable destruction, as he realized that no matter what he did, he could not stave off his body's decay. Fear at realizing that I would be stronger than him by the time the preparations for the ritual were completed.

I remembered as I stood, watching, waiting, as I grew ever stronger in anticipation of this day, forcing down my rage, forcing down my hate to play the role of the loyal dog to my master.

I remembered when I was forced to be party to the evils of this place, when Orochimaru would dispatch me to deal with his escaped experiments and subjects. I remembered the looks of despair in all of their faces when I captured or ended their lives.

I remembered the long nights when I thought I was going insane from the all-pervading darkness, at the same time that the sicknesses that wracked my body as the drugs that Orochimaru fed me to enhance my powers did their work.

I remembered the days when the memories of my team and the small picture of them that I still carried with me felt like the only things standing between me and insanity.

I remembered the weeks of grueling training, of feeling my self-control slowly fraying away as exhaustion threatened to take me.

I remembered the sacrifices I had made, the sacrifices that I had been _forced_ to make to reach this point.

And I allowed my hatred to overflow.

It was time for retribution, for the souls of those the departed, and for that of a boy named Uchiha Sasuke, who had died here three years ago, on the night he had decided to sacrifice himself for the sake of his family.

For vengeance, and for justice, I inexorably moved forward.

XXX

As I approached the entrance, I closed my eyes and expanded my senses outwards.

The Snake was… lying on the bed. His chakra was fluctuating wildly as he coughed up a storm. It seemed that the degeneration of his current body had already progressed quite far.

But even as he coughed, I could _hear_ his laughter mixed in with it. He no doubt thought that he would soon be taking my body.

I _smiled_.

I was going to _enjoy_ ripping that particular illusion to pieces.

Either way, it was time.

I held up my hand, preparing a jutsu which I never once had shown my teacher before as I allowed the Cursed Seal to slowly spread across my skin.

_Chidori Eisou__._

A spear of chakra shot out from the tip of my fingers, piercing through the door, and striking flesh with a satisfying sound.

With my other hand, I drew my blade, and slashed the door to pieces.

Orochimaru was lying on his bed inside, hands crossed in front of him, the blade of lightning stuck through them.

I hadn't killed him with the first strike. Unfortunate, but ultimately meaningless.

"Orochimaru," I intoned coldly, "I have run out of use for you."

"You..." I could _hear_ the malice in the Snake's voice, "I knew you would come for me."

I immediately brought up my guard at that. If he had been preparing for my arrival…

But no. I could not afford to show weakness here. That would be the same as signing my own death sentence.

"You're weaker than me now. I'd be better off going after Itachi on my own, rather than let you do so at this point."

A slight smile graced my lips.

"It's time for you to die."

The Snake groaned, and moved his hands aside as I tried to push the spear of lightning I had stuck through them into his head.

"Such big talk…" his fury evident even through his coughs, "for the Uchiha hatchling!"

My smirk grew wider. "The hatchling? I suppose I was. But tell me…"

I took another step forward, and Orochimaru grit his teeth as he struggled to keep his arms steady, realizing that they were all that stood between him and a lightning spear through the head.

"What does that say about you, who was so afraid of the fully-grown Uchiha that he was only capable of taking that _hatchling_ to his side? You could not defeat Itachi, you could not capture any Uchiha while my clan was still numerous, and most of all…"

The expression on my face grew downright _maniacal_.

"You couldn't even bring _me_ over to your way of thinking."

Orochimaru's eyes widened in sudden comprehension. "You!" he screamed, "You never intended to-"

"Shut up," I cut him, giving the lightning blade a vicious _twist_, "your executioner is speaking."

Orochimaru shut up, wracked by another convulsion.

"You are a monster, Orochimaru," I continued after a moment. "You toy with hundreds upon hundreds of people, playing god with their bodies and lives. And for what? Your own pathetic narcissism? Your desire to be perfect?"

_Nii-san… Why… Why did you kill everybody? _Why?

_To test my capacity._

My Sharingan _whirled_.

"You _disgust_ me."

And I leapt forward, drawn Kusanagi in hand, as I directed my left hand forward, pinning Orochimaru's arms to the wall.

The blade came down, but just before it could pierce the Sannin through his gaping mouth,_ something_ leapt out of it, and my teacher's body collapsed like a broken puppet.

I blinked, frowning, then turned around.

When I saw what was in front of me, my smirk turned positively _murderous_.

An immense, white snake, it's own scales composed of countless smaller ones. Where the creature's head should have been, instead there was only a sick and twisted parody of Orochimaru's human face, its jaws distended unnaturally and filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth.

"So," I said drily, "that is your true form, the White Snake of rebirth. How hideous."

"Sasuke-kun! Give me your body!"

I felt my lips draw back from my teeth as I snarled in response.

"Why don't you give me your _life_ first?"

And I leapt, blade flashing out as I tried to cut the creature's head off with a single blow.

Unfortunately, my teacher managed to dodge to the side just as my blade passed through the spot where his head was supposed to be, and I flew over him. Immediately after, I _felt_ three the snakes that made up the "scales" of the beast lash out at me, trying to catch me off guard.

Executing a midair about-face, I whirled both my sword and the still active Chidori spear in my left hand like a dervish, slicing through the miniature serpents tried to sink their fangs into my body.

Even as I landed, the onslaught continued. Dispelling the chidori spear, I instead called out a brace of kunai that left my hand an instant later, pinning eight more of the attacking heads to the wall. Immediately after, I flung my sword straight upwards, and it cut through yet another one of the serpents that had been trying to strike while I was still distracted, and embedded itself in the ceiling.

I pulled my arms out of my sleeves, freeing my torso from my clothing, and I allowed the Cursed Seal to completely overtake my body, even as the serpents surrounded me.

"Even if the snake forever dreams of soaring through the sky, it is forever doomed to crawl on its belly. And yet, even understanding that, you targeted the hatchling in order to try and obtain wings for yourself. But in the end…"

In an instant, every one of the snakes attempting to bind me was sliced to pieces as I tore them apart with the claws on my wings.

"You have simply become the prey of the hawk."

If he had still been capable of emoting in his current state, Orochimaru probably would have screamed in fear. But instead…

"Sasssssukeeeeeeeeeeee!"

And he dove at me. One last, desperate attack.

I leapt straight upwards, landing on the ceiling with one foot on my blade. Then, I released myself, pulling my Kusanagi out of the wall with my foot.

And with two precise strokes, I cut Orochimaru apart.

XXX

Allowing the cursed seal to fade away as I stood over my teacher's dismembered body, I frowned.

That was easy. Far too easy. I had expected Orochimaru to put up more of a fight than just that, especially since his body had not decayed fully just yet.

Then, I felt it. It was just for a moment, but Orochimaru's chakra spiked.

I clicked my tongue.

_Tch. Still alive after all._

Bringing one hand up to cover my mouth, I tapped the seal on my wrist and released a brace of kunai, flinging them to different corners of the room.

Then they blew up, and the walls _shattered_, kicking up large amounts of dust and dirt all around us, and leaving us exposed to the outside world.

And when it settled down, I was faced with a terrifying sight.

A massive eight-headed serpent loomed above me, its immense body dwarfing even Manda's in size. Each of its heads leaked malice and pure _power_ into the air, looming over me, like a snake before a rabbit.

And then, one of the mouths opened, and Orochimaru emerged, slowly pulling himself out, his body pure white and completely naked. When he spoke, it was in a tone filled with poisonous amusement.

"Kukukuku… Sasuke-kun, you noticed my poison in the air, and blew it away with those explosions, didn't you? As I thought, you are by far the best container for me!"

And that was around the point which I started to realize that I _really_ may have bitten off a bit more than I could chew.

XXX

Orochimaru was the one to throw the first blow this time, each of his necks snaking out in succession to try and catch me in its jaws.

I leapt backwards, backflipping away from the first second and third, only to find the fourth approaching me from behind.

"Tch!"

Performing a backflip, I landed in a handstand, drawing my blade in the same motion and channeling lightning-natured chakra through it.

Immediately after, I leapt off, spinning in midair as I landed on _top_ of the head.

"Haaaaaaaa!"

And then, I drove the blade straight into its neck, halfway through, and, holding onto the sword for my dear life and channelling chakra through my feet as I spun, and dragged it around the entire neck, cutting it off.

The remnants of the appendage _convulsed_, and finally fell as the first three heads snaked out to try and strike.

Ripping my blade free, I leapt straight into the air, and allowed my control over the Cursed Seal to relax just a bit.

Two dark, demonic wings sprouted from my back, and I caught the wind, soaring into the sky before I pulled them back in, gracefully landing fifty feet away from the flopping head now lying on the ground.

That was when I realized exactly what the four heads that had _not_ been attacking were doing, as a superheated blast of plasma lanced through the air just next to where I had been standing a moment before.

_Oh shi-_

The blasts of energy continued to strike around me, as the heads once again snaked out. The body itself continued to slither forward, attempting to push me back into a corner no doubt.

I bit my thumb, smearing a bit of blood across my palm, and just as the first head was about to hit, I slammed it down.

_Kuchiyose: Rashoumon!_

And a single, massive, imposing gate landed straight on top of the head, crushing it as it blocked the next blast of plasma at the same time. Instantly channeling lightning chakra back into my hand and forming it into a spear of energy, I leapt forward, and cut straight through the neck, severing the head from its body once more.

The Rashoumon disappeared in a puff of smoke as I ended the summoning. Two down-

With a sudden rush of dismay, I saw the first head I had cut off slowly starting to regenerate.

Seven to go.

I grit my teeth.

This was bad. I couldn't keep dodging forever, and even in his weakened state, Orochimaru still had me beat in terms of stamina. My only choice was to crush him in one strike, but even then…

Wait, one strike.

That was it.

Grasping at the threads of a plan that had begun forming in my head, I activated the cursed seal again, allowing my wings to grow out behind me.

Kneeling down to build up force, I leapt straight into the air, and after I gained enough height, paused, hovering.

I looked down, and the sharingan began to spin.

_Analyze_.

Six blasts of energy, all heading straight for me. Only one path to avoid them.

I twisted, ducked, and spun, weaving through the blasts of plasma as I formed the handseals.

_Katon: Gouryuuka no jutsu!_

Dozens of flaming dragons flew from my mouth, striking Orochimaru's body over and over again. Unfortunately, the blasts didn't seem to do much damage to the snake directly.

But still. I needed to continue.

And so, I did it again.

And again.

This time, there were seven beams of plasma.

And again.

Eight.

At the end, I was exhausted, and Orochimaru was still unscathed. The entire forested area, around us, however, had been turned into an inferno of epic proportions from my missed and reflected attacks.

But that was fine. I had already achieved my goal. Now, I just needed to buy time.

Running was not an option. If I fled, then my plan would fail as Orochimaru's lumbering mass crushed the entire forest around him.

Thus, I needed to attack.

And so, defying the snake's expectations, I charged, desperately hoping that I wouldn't get killed. Channeling some of the last chakra I had into a chidori spear, I flew straight at the fourth head on the snake's body, the one housing Orochimaru's own head.

One second.

The first head snaked out, trying to grab me by my legs. Unperturbed, and using the Sharingan's slowed perception of time to my advantage, I spun, thrusting the chidori spear in my hand through the its eye, causing it to reel back in pain, right before I tore it out again.

Two seconds.

The second and third heads lashed out, attempting to grab my head and my legs. I spun, and threw my Kusanagi downwards, using the force generated to propel myself up, just enough that the two heads struck each other, rather than me.

Three seconds.

The fifth through eighth heads lashed out, each aiming for one of my limbs. Continuing in my spinning motion, I pulled my wings back into the Cursed Seal, dispelling them, and brought my now-free hand up to my mouth.

_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!_

The fireball erupted straight upwards, propelling me back down, and the four heads met in the center of the conflagration, striking each other and my flames at the same time.

I continued spinning, and made a complete about-face, facing straight downwards again. My sword was a foot away, and I moved from my spread-eagle position to a more upright one, grabbing the blade with a chakra-enhanced foot. My free hand lashed out, the ninja wire I had drawn from the seal on my wrist flew through the air, and wrapped around the last neck.

I _pulled_, righting myself in midair, and strangling the neck I had latched onto at the same time as I swung on it like a vine. I immediately pulled my wings back out of my body, and transferred the Kusanagi back to my hand.

I released the wire and _flew_, using the momentum to increase my speed, and cut straight through the fourth neck, ignoring Orochimaru's scream of rage.

That single movement once again cut off my momentum, allowing me to right myself in midair once more. The stump I had cut off instantly started to regenerate.

_Keh. So cutting him off from the jutsu didn't end it…_

There was no time. The remaining heads were already beginning to come out of their daze.

Only one place left to go.

Compressing the still-active chidori spear back into a regular chidori, I _moved_, straight for the still swinging stump of the head I had just cut off.

I pierced straight into his body, whirling my sword like a dervish to eviscerate the creature's insides.

Cut.

A cluster of organs, in my grasp. I sliced them to pieces with a single blow as I continued moving.

Pierce.

A blood vessel was run through, as my chidori penetrated it, and continued straight through, bathing me in the ichor that had been flowing through it just a moment before.

Crush.

I stuck a small cluster of nerves to my foot, and tore them off out of their place in Orochimaru's body, releasing them right after, only to do it again.

Suddenly, I was stopped as my chidori struck something hard and cold.

_What?_

What could this be?

What could possibly stop my assassination technique? What could possibly have stopped me from moving forward?

I turned my head forward, and saw it.

It was Orochimaru's Kusanagi, the blade which was also known as _Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi_, the Sword of the Gathered Clouds of Heaven. His personal blade. The legendary weapon that was said to be sharp enough to cut through diamond.

I allowed the chidori to dissipate.

Then _smiled_, as I reached out to grasp the hilt.

XXX

I spun, grabbing Orochimaru's - _my_ sword, and slicing through the constricting walls of flesh around me, and tore my way out, flying straight into the air.

I had been stuck in the fourth tail, I could see now, and

"Kukukukuku…"

I turned around, panting, and saw the entire eight-headed serpent turn around to face me.

"You have done well, to get this far, Sasuke-kun. But still, this is my victory."

I smirked. "Is that how you see it? Because it looks to me like I've won from here."

The snakelike grin on my teacher's face, still achingly clear, even though I had been forced to deactivate my Sharingan a couple minutes before, grew wider, his tongue coming out to lick his lips.

"Do not bluff, my dear little student. You may have taken my Kusanagi, but you are still exhausted and almost out of chakra. You can barely stand at this point, let alone fight on. I, on the other hand, despite my weakened condition, am still able to continue. Now be a good boy, and _give me your body_."

My smirk grew wider in response.

"Well, that does sound like a tempting offer, but I'm afraid I'll have to refuse." Slowly coming to my feet, I sheathed my own sword, still holding the one I had just taken in my left hand.

Then, I brought my right hand up to the sky, as if reaching for the heavens.

"You see, _sensei_, with all of the explosions and fireballs that have been flying around here, you don't seem to have realized something."

A small bit of lightning formed in my hand.

"You've launched _dozens_ of those superheated energy blasts of yours into the sky. I, on the other hand, have managed to light this entire forest on fire, causing even more heat to rise to the atmosphere."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, before widening in sudden comprehension as the rain began to patter down on us.

"Looks like you finally understand, _sensei_. The power of our attacks has superheated the sky, causing a massive lift in air currents which has changed the atmosphere, forming _Cumulonimbus_." My smirk became downright vicious as I delivered the last word. "Rainclouds."

Lightning arced from the sky as the thunder began to sound.

"And… well, you know how it ends now, right?"

"N-n-_no_. It can't be!"

Lightning flew from my hand to touch the heavens.

"_Kirin_," I declared, with a voice like the hammer of judgement.

And with a single, unstoppable motion, I brought my hand down.

"_Vanish with the roar of thunder_."

And that was the day the Snake Sannin's mad quest for power finally came to its ignominious end.

**A/N**: So, just to make sure this is clear...

Orochimaru is _dead_. Like a doornail. Pushing up the daisies, six feet under, sleeping with the fishes, and any number of other synonyms for "never coming back" that you can think of.

_Gone_. He will not be appearing again, outside of theoretical flashbacks.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and the _actual_ divergences after the last one, which was mostly canon rehash.

**Glossary**:

Chidori Eisou – Chidori Sharp Spear: Sasuke adds high level shape manipulation to the Lightning-natured chakra of the chidori, transforming it into a spear that allows him to both pierce and cut through his enemies.

Yamata no Jutsu – Eight Branches Technique: Orochimaru's ultimate jutsu, which allows him to take on the form of a massive, eight-headed serpent. In the Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 video game, he is also able to form and fire blasts of energy similar to bijuudama from the mouths of the eight heads of the serpent, an ability which I kept for this fic.

Katon: Gouryuuka no Jutsu – Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique: The user compresses a large amount of chakra built up inside their body, and changes it into a dragon head-shaped fireball. Sasuke uses this technique to set up Kirin in his fight against Itachi.

Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu – Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique: I'm relatively certain that this doesn't require any explanation.

Kuchiyose: Rashoumon – Summoning: Rashoumon: The user summons a Rashoumon gate to protect themselves. Sasuke hasn't demonstrated this in canon, but I didn't think it too much of a stretch to give him access to it.

Kirin – Kirin: An incredibly powerful, one-shot lightning technique created by Sasuke. It draws natural lightning directly from thunderclouds, shaping it into the form of the legendary Quilin, and brings it down on his enemies. The technique has been shown to be able to shatter an entire mountaintop in a single blow, and in this chapter, is able to completely atomize Orochimaru's body, ending him for good.


	4. The Liar's Guide to Team Recruitment

Chapter 4: The Liar's Guide to Team Recruitment

I awoke with a splitting headache to the sound of crackling fire and the burn of smoke in my lungs.

Quickly blinking, and patting out an errant flame that had spread onto my rope-like belt, I struggled to my feet, exhaustion threatening to topple me over at any moment.

Where was I?

A memory of lightning flashed through my mind.

Ah yes. I had just killed Orochimaru.

Frowning, I winced as another lance of pain turned my vision white. I clenched my hand around Ame-no-Murakumo, which I still held in my hand, and used the peerless blade as a crutch to keep my balance.

If I had the energy, I would have smirked in dry amusement. Orochimaru would have been _horrified_ to see his precious sword treated in such a utilitarian fashion.

I put a little bit more weight on it, and drawing a soldier pill out of my pouch, ate it. And then, I began to walk, first as a slow shamble, then faster and faster as the medicine began to take its effect.

The smoldering embers and charred remnants of trees and bushes continued to burn around me. I stopped and looked around for a moment to truly take in the devastation my battle with my teacher had caused. Orochimaru and I had both been incredibly powerful, and our surroundings had borne the brunt of our powers.

The entire forest had been wiped out for at least a mile in each direction, the flames I had spread around had burned through the foliage quickly and efficiently, while Orochimaru's lumbering form had crushed even more of them. In addition to this, just up ahead, there was a crater, a hundred meters across, where the Sannin's charred corpse lay. Even now, parts of it began to flake and crumble away slowly into the light.

Raising my head to look up, I activated my Sharingan for an instant to give a bit more clarity so that I could see through the haze of smoke above me. Judging from the position of the sun, very little time had passed since I had defeated my teacher, perhaps ten minutes or less. The corpse's decomposition would probably be complete within a day or two.

Looking to the right, I saw the hole in the ground where the roof of Orochimaru's base had used to be. Hesitating slightly as my foot nearly gave out from under me, I regained my balance and started moving towards it.

XXX

By the time I finally reached my improvised entrance, I had recovered enough to stand without a crutch, and now held the Ame-no-Murakumo in a casual, one-handed grip at my side.

Dropping down into the annihilated area which had once been a room, I looked up and blinked.

"Kabuto..." The name fell from my mouth with a breath.

The medic was on his knees, his face twisted into a rictus of utter shock. His mouth was slightly open, and his eyes reflected his terror at the scene in front of him. A small bowl and a puddle of green liquid laid upturned at his side, where he had no doubt dropped it.

I brought up the blade and held it up to the man's throat. As the steel touched him, he finally seemed to notice me.

"You..." he whispered, "You... killed Orochimaru-sama?"

I smirked. "Indeed."

Acknowledging that felt very nice.

"But that's... that's impossible! Even weakened, Orochimaru-sama is invincible! There's no way that he could possibly-"

I pushed the blade forward, till the tip bit into his flesh. "Shut up."

Kabuto shut up.

His eyes still sparkled with his fear. I savored that emotion like the finest wine, taking the utmost pleasure from it.

"Here I stand..." I whispered at last. "I have bested my teacher, I have defeated the man who claimed the life of the Sandaime Hokage. My teacher was killed by his treacherous student, and now the cycle has come full circle as his own did the same."

Kabuto schooled his expression into one of forced calm, but the fear still emanating from him did not wane in the slightest.

"Now... what shall I do with the Snake's little servant?"

The blade moved slightly further forward. The blood started to flow down the medic's neck, staining his shirt as it trickled down.

We stood there for a short while. Kabuto did not beg, or even speak. His life was in my hands.

I sighed.

Then viciously ran the blade through his throat.

Kabuto collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Without even turning around, I held out my other hand behind me.

_Chidori Eisou_.

The blade pierced the _real_ Kabuto through the shoulder as the one in front of me morphed into one of his many, many corpse replacements.

Or at least it would have, had he not spun around and knocked the strike aside with glowing, green fist giving him enough time to duck through the doorway.

I let out a vicious curse as I sprinted forward in pursuit, but by the time I had gotten through the doorway, he was already gone, having ducked off into one of the side halls.

Unfortunately, I was still tired from the fight against Orochimaru, and my legs chose that moment to give out on me. By the time I had pulled myself back to my feet, Kabuto was gone, his chakra already so faded that I couldn't sense him any longer.

I slammed my fist into the wall in frustration, cratering it slightly from the sheer force, my teeth grit in fury.

This was annoying.

The medic would be back at some point in the future, I knew, and when he was, I also knew I would regret letting him get away today. I shouldn't have _gloated_. I should have just killed him immediately, instead of giving him a chance to escape…

I took a deep, calming breath. No point in getting worked up. There were more immediate things to worry about now.

With a flourish, I spun around and stalked down the hallway to Orochimaru's lab.

XXX

As I moved into the chamber, I heard a sudden rush of muttering fill the air around me.

I looked up.

Cages lined the wall, filled with people of every color and age. Hundreds of prisoners, many of whom had probably not seen daylight in years.

I activated my Sharingan, walking up to one of the prisons lining the wall.

The muttering stopped as I moved closer, replaced by a sort of anticipatory fear.

I raised Orochimaru's Kusanagi, and one prisoner, the one furthest forward, _cowered_ back. He no doubt though that I had been sent here to either execute or fetch one of them for the latest experiment.

A flash of fury ran through me. How badly had Orochimaru demoralized these people? I wouldn't wish their fate on anyone.

Even Itachi.

It made me hate the dead Sannin just a little bit more.

But I showed none of that on my face, and in a single smooth movement, I drew the blade across the door to the cell, slicing it in half.

The silence continued. No one moved. I walked up to the next one and repeated the process, slicing the door off of its hinges.

I continued until all of the cages had been destroyed, then turned to scan the room.

No one had even taken a step outside.

A hint of exasperation shot through my mind. I crushed it down quickly. I couldn't fault these people for being hesitant.

"Well?" I asked after a moment, voice booming through the enclosed space, "What are you waiting for? You're free! Go!"

The silence grew almost incredulous.

"B-but… what about Orochimaru-sama?" a small voice squeaked. I turned to look at the speaker, and saw a small boy with dark red hair who immediately drew back with an "Eep!" as soon as I turned to look at him.

I tried to smile reassuringly. Unfortunately, the boy just drew back further. Apparently my "reassuring" smile wasn't all that pleasant to look at.

I did not sigh at that. Uchiha did not _broadcast_ their feelings in public, but I did feel my shoulders sag slightly.

"He's dead," I responded at last, "at my hand. He can't hurt you, _any_ of you, any longer."

The sudden chatter that filled the air was near-deafening, and people started to slowly, ever so slowly, stream out of their prisons, moving to the doors. I simply watched for a short while, before I felt a tug at my shirt. I turned around.

A pretty young woman stood there, quivering. I tilted my head at her, the question in the gesture obvious.

"I-is it true?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Poor girl. She was probably terrified. I knew some of the rumors that the Oto-nin spread about me. Most of them weren't pretty.

And with good reason.

So I smiled again. Instead of drawing back, this one _blushed_.

How annoying.

But instead of showing that, I simply responded as kindly as I could.

"Yes. He's dead."

"D-did he suffer?" she asked. This time, there was a quiver of anger in her voice, one which was deeply suppressed, but which spoke of atrocities that had been committed in the past, of memories, and more than that, of a desire for justice.

My smile faded away. "Not too long, but he died in possibly the worst fashion that a man like him could imagine."

She froze, before a sort of tension seemed to leak out of her shoulders.

"H-how?" she asked quietly, and I knew in that moment, that my answer would hold a great deal of meaning to her. For better or for worse, she would keep it with her for the rest of her life.

And ruining something like that just felt _wrong_.

So I smirked.

"Pathetically."

XXX

After freeing the prisoners, and resting for a bit longer to regain some strength, I continued deeper into the lab, my skin prickling uncomfortably at the touch of the cool air.

Around me hung a myriad of pipes and tanks pumping water. Many were empty, and many others were filled with twisted abominations, artificial life that the Snake had created in his mad quest for immortality. I felt a surge of disgust for the Snake before quickly suppressing it back down.

I kept pacing forward slowly, methodically advancing towards one of the seemingly-empty tanks which lined the walls, finally stopping right in front.

"Suigetsu."

A pause.

"So…" an amused voice sounded from the tank, "it really is you. I guess you being here means that you really managed to do it, didn't you? Orochimaru's dead."

I nodded and brought Ame-no-Murakumo up. "Yeah. But more importantly, let me get you out of there now."

A single slash later, and the chakra-infused water the tank were left slowly spilling out onto the floor.

And then, I saw _him_ slowly start to rise out of it.

"Ahhh… finally outta there. Thanks, Sasuke."

I idly noted that the occupant's head was still underwater, or perhaps more accurately, his head still _was_ water.

His voice was undoubtedly male, annoyingly frivolous, and had a sarcastic lilt to it, which marked him as an easygoing sort. But that same voice also had a hint of something unsettling at its core. It was the same sort of thing that I noticed in Hoshigaki Kisame's voice, three years ago.

A kind of disregard, casual and natural, for things that others took for granted.

His movements as he slowly pulled himself out of the water as his lower body formed were languid and calm, but with a certain slow grace to them which marked him as a Shinobi.

All of these impressions were, while not _wrong_, incomplete.

Suigetsu was a frivolous, sarcastic ass, but he also had his own code of honor, and was one of the deadliest shinobi I knew. A scion of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, he was a prodigy who was called the _Kijin no Sairai_, Second Coming of the Demon, successor to Momochi Zabuza.

This was, of course, precisely why I had come to recruit him.

"Suigetsu," I said, my voice chilly as snow, "you're the first. Come with me."

I turned to look at him, and almost felt my nose wrinkle in disgust.

He was naked.

"So I'm the first?" he asked, either ignoring or not noticing my reaction, though I suspected the former. "Meaning… we'll have more company?"

His left leg rose from the water, coming up to stand on its surface..

"Two," I responded, "Karin from the Southern hideout, and Juugo from the North."

"Really?" he asked, and while the shark-toothed grin that seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face didn't fade, I heard a note of discontent in his voice.

I didn't let my expression change, but I frowned internally. "What?"

A short silence as he finished pulling himself out, legs forming. "It's just… I don't really like those two."

His teeth, filed away to tips, drew back into something resembling a smile. "I don't think I'll get along very well with them."

He stood up straight, cracking his neck, before his shark-toothed not-grin grew wider. "Myself aside, I do have to wonder just what you're planning on doing after finding those two, _Sasuke_."

I let my frown show, and my next statement did well to convey my displeasure.

"Your blabbering is annoying. Put on some clothes, and let's go."

I turned away and started walking, but rather than following, Suigetsu simply laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound.

"Wow!" he said in between chuckles, "You're really acting all superior, arentcha?"

And then, he disappeared, and in an instant, stood behind me, his index finger to the side of my head.

And now, his voice was a deadly whisper in my ear.

"Hey… let's make our relationship perfectly clear… okay?"

I didn't move.

I felt his grin widen behind me at my utter lack of fear. "Sorry… but you only helped me because it was convenient to you. I didn't say a single word about accompanying you."

I continued waiting for him to finish, not interrupting or responding. Suigetsu was testing me, trying to see if I would crack.

And if I did, I knew that the results would be… less than ideal, for me.

His eyes narrowed, and his voice became sharp as a blade, probing, provoking, trying to see if he could get a reaction.

"Don't act all high and mighty just because you beat Orochimaru. _Everyone_ was after him. You just had more opportunities since you were his favorite toy, kept unshackled at his side."

I continued staring. Everything he had said was true, after all. Though the main issue was that "everyone" else's chances of getting the Sannin had been miniscule at best.

A silence, populated only by the sound of dripping water, surrounded us.

And after a long moment, Suigetsu pulled his hand away. "Heh! Just kidding."

I didn't relax or move. This test wasn't over just yet, I knew.

He turned away. "However, since I'm letting you live here, that means that we're even now. I don't have to do anything for you. Now that I'm free, I'll do what I want." He started walking off.

Ah. So that was his game. Make us equal, and ask a favor for a favor.

Luckily, I already knew what he wanted.

I remained silent for a moment, and finally responded. "I see. That's too bad."

And then, when he had finally disappeared into the distance, I let the Kage Bunshin dispel.

XXX

"Come to think of it, it was your team, wasn't it? You were the ones who defeated my senpai, the great Momochi Zabuza."

I stopped.

Just as expected, I had met Suigetsu again.

A lake of water stretched out in front of me, completely out of place on the surface of the flat road. Suigetsu had probably created it, and waited ahead of me.

I had moved especially slowly just for that precise reason, to let the other boy catch up.

Suigetsu was inside, swimming laps.

_Still_ naked.

"I wonder…" the Hozuki continued, seemingly not noticing my annoyance, "What happened to his sword, the Kubikiriboucho?"

I didn't speak.

Suigetsu swam over and looked up at me.

"Hey, let's do it this way, Sasuke. You help me get that sword, and I'll join you. How does that sound?"

Just as expected.

I stared at him for a couple of seconds, unblinking.

Then I stepped onto the water, brushing past him.

"Put on some clothes."

XXX

There was a sign hanging from the arch. I stared up at it, unmoving.

Suigetsu looked up. "The Great Naruto Bridge? Strange name."

I didn't even turn around. The Hozuki was sucking on that straw poking out of his water-bottle, as he had been throughout our entire trip here.

"Hey, Sasuke. Was Zabuza-senpai strong?" he suddenly changed the subject.

I stared at the sign, and a rush of memories hit me.

_You brats don't look like shinobi to me…_

_When you've become so deadly that your profile has been entered into my bingo book, then and only then will you be worthy of being called a shinobi!_

_When I was your age, my hands were already soaked in blood…_

"Yeah…" I muttered at last. "He was really strong."

Suigetsu smirked. "Well, at least if _you're_ saying so, I can assume that's true."

I glanced at him, and snorted, taking the sarcastic compliment for what it was. "Let's go."

XXX

"... It's not here."

I didn't say anything.

Suigetsu turned around. "Hey, Sasuke. Was it really here before?"

"Yeah."

"But it's not here now." He spread his arms in a confused gesture. "Where could it have gone?"

I shot him an irritated look, coupled with a frown.

"Beats me. I'm not that grave's guardian. If it's gone, then someone took it."

Suigetsu frowned. "I guess so…"

He started walking away. "Sasuke, sorry, but since that sword isn't here, I can't come with you just yet."

A moment later, I followed.

XXX

The stares from the waitresses at the corner of the room were really, _really_ annoying, as were the luminescent blushes on their faces.

"Yogurt's the best!" Suigetsu remarked with a grin as he dug into his order.

I hid my reaction. Projecting confidence was the key to winning Suigetsu's respect, and breaking that in order to sigh would be a bad idea.

Suigetsu kept blabbering on. Something about how he hadn't gotten yogurt while stuck in his water prison. I continued to ignore him until he finally said something which caught my interest.

"You're fine with wasting time here?" I asked at last.

Suigetsu smiled. "Well… It's not me who's in a hurry, is it, Sasuke?"

I kept my face carefully blank.

"What's the plan once we get our merry little band together anyways?"

I blinked. "Not now. I'll tell you once all the three of you are together." I just _hated_ repeating myself.

"Hmmmm?" Suigetsu's smirk grew wider. "Yes! Let's take all of the riches under the heavens!"

I snorted.

"Take whatever you like. My goal is much higher than something as base as that."

Suigetsu sighed, then reached up with his spoon to scratch the top of his head. "If anyone else had said something like that, I would have laughed them out of here, but you… I almost think you can do it."

Before I could respond to the backhanded compliment, though, Suigetsu called out to a young waitress who was delivering his next order. "Hey, you. Do you know about that giant sword that was near the Great Naruto Bridge?"

She blinked, frowning thoughtfully for a moment after processing his question.

"Yes… come to think of it, there was something like that there…" The waitress glanced at me, then turned away blushing. I ignored her with practiced ease. "What about it?"

Suigetsu's shark-smile grew wider, and his voice became deceptively casual as he pointed his spoon at me. "Well, you see, _he_ is searching for it. Can you tell us anything about it?"

The poor girl nearly dropped her plate in shock. I, on the other hand, suddenly felt like strangling Suigetsu, but kept my emotions tightly bottled up.

I felt a grudging hint of respect though. Suigetsu knew how to _read_ people, even if manipulating civilians was almost childishly simple.

"U-Um! Someone else might know! I'll go ask!"

She squealed as she dashed off to the other waitresses, to whom she immediately began whispering. A moment later, all of them let out similar squeals.

Suigetsu's expression turned from interested to downright amused as he observed. "You're quite the playboy, arentcha Sasuke?"

I didn't respond, but shot him a look which told him that he would _pay _for this later. The boy just grinned wider.

The girls returned. "Ask Tazuna-san! He lives near the riverside!" I heard their continuing squeals and coos in the periphery, but blocked them out as I rolled over a familiar name in my mind.

"Tazuna… huh?" I whispered, almost wistfully.

The expression on my face must have changed at that, since the girls grew even noisier afterwards. It took a bit longer before we managed to shake them off.

XXX

I walked up the familiar road to the familiar house. It had been three years since I had last been here, and even now, it was a place of many memories.

After all, how could a man ever forget his first true test? How could he forget the place where he learned to define _himself_?

I most certainly couldn't.

With a deep but imperceptible breath, I raised my hand, and knocked.

Then, I waited.

One minute.

Two.

The hinges squeaked as the door slowly, ever so slowly, creaked open.

And a small, familiar face, topped by a spiky mat of brown hair peered out.

He had ditched that strange hat he had always worn before, but even then, I recognized him instantly.

He just stared at my face for an instant before I saw his face slowly shift from curiosity to recognition to utter glee.

"Sasuke!"

And I just couldn't help but crack a small smile at that.

"Hello, Inari."

XXX

"Mom, mom, mom! Guess who's here!" Inari half-screamed, running through the hallway. Giving a rueful grin, I moved after him, with a distinctly uncomfortable Suigetsu following.

It took Tsunami a moment, but when she finally recognized me, her eyes went wide and a hand came up to cover her mouth in shock.

"S-S-Sasuke-kun?"

I tentatively raised my hand. "Hello, Tsunami. Are you doing well?"

The shock on her face quickly faded away and was replaced by another emotion.

Joy.

"It is you!" she exclaimed happily. "Please, sit down! I'll fix us some tea!"

Behind me, Suigetsu opened his mouth, no doubt to object.

I drove a foot crackling with lightning-nature chakra into his shin.

The silver-haired boy grit his teeth in sudden pain. "Sasuke!" he whispered. "We don't have time for this!"

I almost smirked. However, when it came out, my voice was just dry. "I'm not the one in a hurry here, now am I?"

Suigetsu shut up.

And then, I turned back and gave Tsunami a perfect, sweet smile.

"Thank you for your hospitality."

XXX

"My goodness," Tsunami murmured, looking at me, "you _have_ grown, haven't you. I nearly didn't recognize you with that _mane_ of hair on your head."

I blinked. "Do you think I should cut it?" I asked, running a hand through said "mane". I rather liked it myself, but if it looked ridiculous, it would probably be best to rid myself of it as soon as possible.

The dark-haired woman smiled kindly and shook her head. "Not at all. It makes you look… dangerous. Complements your features." She let out a giggle. "The girls must just _flock_ to you these days."

I almost groaned at that. Seeing my expression, Tsunami just chuckled softly.

"Ah, but you already know that, don't you? Wait a minute. The tea should be ready."

She got up to get the mug from the kitchen, and I turned to Inari.

The kid looked like he was almost ready to burst from excitement. I gave him a smirk.

"And just how are _you_ doing, kid?"

Inari's face lit up.

When Tsunami returned to the room, the boy was babbling, talking about how happy he was, how much Wave had improved after Gato had been taken care of, of how aid from Konoha had revitalized the small, ailing country's economy (though not in such complex terms).

The woman raised an eyebrow at her son, then turned to me and smiled once more, walking over to pour out a cup of tea, then moving onto Suigetsu who accepted it with careful consideration.

Taking a small test sip at the hot liquid, I felt the refreshing taste slide down my throat. Not too warm, not too cold. Just right.

At this point, Inari's voice had finally started to die down as he too started to taste his tea, and Tsunami took her place at the table, pouring herself a cup as well.

A moment of silence passed, finally broken when I spoke.

"Where's Tazuna?" I asked curiously. I hadn't noticed the old bridge-builder anywhere around, and there were no other chakras in the house.

"Ah, father? He's preparing for our trip. He and Inari are heading to the Land of Lightning just next week to deal with a contract. "If you have time, he will probably be back."

"What about you, Sasuke? How are Naruto and Sakura doing? Why aren't they here with you?"

My picture-perfect smile didn't waver, even through the sudden flash of pain in my chest, accompanied by memories of blue and green eyes.

"They were both doing fine the last time I saw them," I responded after a moment, keeping my face carefully blank. "As for why they're not here…We're on… separate missions."

I felt Suigetsu's curious gaze on my back, but refused to let myself react. He probably recognized Naruto's name from the bridge.

Inari's enthusiasm seemed to dim slightly, but he quickly perked back up. "Mission? Are you helping people, like you helped us?"

I favored the boy with a glance. "Yes. In fact, that's why we came here."

Inari blinked, crossing his arms, then nodded vigorously. "I knew it! You really are a good guy, Sasuke. You're here to get rid of Tenzen, right?"

"Tenzen?"

Why was Inari concerned with Daikoku Tenzen?

"He's a really bad guy!" Inari nearly shouted. "He hurts a lot of people in Wave! Please go beat him up, Sasuke!"

I turned to Tsunami, tilting my head ever so slightly. She sighed.

"Daikoku Tenzen," she started, "is a minor noble from the Land of Water who runs a band of robbers on the countryside of Wave." That, I already knew. It was why I had singled out the man in the first place for my little test, after all.

"And?"

"As Inari said, the rebuilding of Wave's economy has been going well, but Tenzen has been… causing problems."

I narrowed my eyes, feeling a hint of real anger. I most certainly had _not_ known about that. "What has he done?"

Tsunami looked up, eyes sad. "He has been attacking merchant shipments to Wave from Mizu no Kuni, slowing down production and killing many people. Recently, he has been getting bolder, coming closer and closer to the capital of this country."

Robbers… from Mizu no Kuni?

"Does he have something to do with why Zabuza's sword is missing?" I asked. If so, that would be fortunate. I would be able to kill two birds with one stone.

"Zabuza's… ah! You mean that massive blade? No no, not at all!" She laughed. "Father had the sword brought here so that we could repair it before returning it." At my questioning glance, she continued. "The blade was becoming covered in rust, and rather dirty."

I could see Suigetsu… not become less frivolous… but I saw some of the hostility seep out of him.

"I see…" I murmured after a short pause.

"Sasuke?"

I slowly leaned back, trying to pick out the best way to phrase my request.

"Actually… that was the reason we came here in the first place. I was here to get the blade for him." I jerked a thumb at my companion.

Tsunami blinked. "You need the sword?"

Suigetsu smirked, and spoke. "Yeah, that's right. I was part of a group that trained to inherit the Seven Swords of the Mist. Now that Zabuza-senpai is dead, his Kubikiriboucho is rightfully mine."

Both of the civilians turned to look at me as if to confirm that Suigetsu was speaking the truth. I gave a slow nod in response.

Tsunami smiled. "Very well. Come with me, and I will lead you to the blade. Luckily, grandfather didn't manage to get it to the smith just yet…"

XXX

Suigetsu was whistling cheerfully as we walked down the road, the massive blade strapped across his back.

I couldn't blame him.

"Happy?" I asked, observing him out of the corner of my eye.

The widening of the boy's shark-like grin was response enough for me.

We walked on in silence for a bit longer.

"Hey, Sasuke… I think that I've grown to understand you, just a bit more."

I glanced over, but didn't respond.

"You're actually a rather nice guy under that cold, playboy exterior, arentcha?"

I nearly blinked. Nearly. Instead, I just felt a muscle under my eye twitch once. Remaining silent, I tilted my head slightly in an obvious question.

Suigetsu smirked. "This road." He gestured. "We're not heading to the base. We're going to Daikoku Tenzen's place. Your little friend's plea affect you? You're not even being paid."

I gave him a dry glance, raising a mocking eyebrow.

Suigetsu blinked slowly, before his eye widened in comprehension. "I see! You were planning on taking me there from the beginning, weren't you? Testing me? So mean!" Contrary to his speech, his tone sounded downright gleeful.

My expression was response enough to _that_. A cold, cocky smirk.

The Hozuki's expression turned downright malicious. "And if you find me wanting?" His voice was filled with a sort of anticipatory maliciousness. I could almost feel the electricity crackling in the air between us.

I composed my expression, keeping it carefully blank and projecting an air of frigid superiority.

"Ah. So scary, arentcha, Sasuke-sama?"

I just kept walking.

Another short pause.

This time, it was me who broke the silence. "One rule."

Suigetsu's ears perked up in interest. "Oh?"

"No killing."

The silver-haired boy blinked. "What? But that's so boring!" he whined.

I shot him a look which told him that he would _obey_ the rule, lest I beat him down and take the Kubikiriboucho from him.

Suigetsu stared at me for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

"You really are way too nice, Sasuke. Though I have to admit, I can't bring myself to hate you for it."

I raised an eyebrow, but continued without looking back.

"And after this? Where are we going?" I opened my mouth to answer, but Suigetsu cut me off immediately. "No wait, let me guess. Knowing you, Sasuke, it's the closest one, right?"

I stared for a moment, before turning to look back at the path with a snort.

"Yeah, that's right. The closest one."

A/N:

Fun stuff. Once again, sorry for the massive canon rehash. It's just that Taka is quite important to Sasuke, and thus, I felt their recruitment deserved some screen-time. Hope you enjoyed it, nonetheless.

Many thanks to my fellow members of the Awesome Authors Coalition for their help with this chapter.

**Glossary:**

Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi - Sword of the Gathered Clouds of Heaven: The original name of the Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword. I'm primarily using this name to distinguish the sword Sasuke took from Orochimaru from the chokuto he received during his training (Which will continue to be referred to as "Kusanagi").


	5. The Liar's Guide to Discomfort

Chapter 5: The Liar's Guide to Discomfort

"Hey Sasuke, I've been wondering about something."

I glanced at Suigetsu and raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you gathering this team anyways? What's your goal?"

I turned away. "I have a specific goal, a goal that I will be able to better accomplish by working with a team. From the moment I approached Orochimaru, I both started planning his death, and searching for the ideal shinobi to join me."

Suigetsu's grin widened, and he shrugged without a care. "Are you sure that getting Karin is a good idea, then? Unlike myself, she was actually loyal to Orochimaru. How do you plan to win her loyalty?"

I sent him a sidelong glance. "I… have my ways." At Suigetsu's skeptical glance, I continued. "I managed to recruit you, didn't I?"

"That was different," my companion asserted. I understood his meaning. In his own mind, at least, Suigetsu believed that he only had decided to follow me due to the fact that I had given him "payment" in the form of the Kubikiribocho.

I considered explaining, but decided against it.

"Was it?" I asked with a slight smirk.

Suigetsu glanced at me, but seeing that I was not about to elaborate further on that point, continued. "Well, either way, I can't say I like her. She's rounded up dozens of prisoners for Orochimaru, and performed experiments on me on his behalf. Though..." he shrugged, "more than any of that, I just can't _stand_ her attitude."

I gave him a reproving look. "It's true that if Karin refuses, there's many other, far stronger shinobi who would be willing to help me, but I'm not after Karin for strength. I want that special ability of hers."

Suigetsu's smile didn't waver. "Well, I can see why you would want it, though speaking of that ability… she probably already knows we're here, doesn't she?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's right. If she doesn't want to join, she'll have ample opportunity to escape."

My companion tilted his head. "Oh? And I suppose you planned things out this way, just like you did with me, didn't you?"

I shot him an annoyed glance and continued at a faster pace. A moment later, Suigetsu followed, chuckling.

"Hey, Sasuke. I have another question," he finally said after a couple of minutes of silence, broken only by the sound of the lapping waves.

I looked at him. "What?"

"What's with that 'no killing' rule of yours anyways?"

I stopped, suddenly falling silent.

"Sasuke?"

I didn't speak, instead staring at the water, trying to think of a response.

Finally, I gave him the only one that came to mind.

"It's who I am."

Then I continued moving, leaving Suigetsu with a puzzled expression on his face.

XXX

Orochimaru's South Base was his main experimentation facility. It was a prison built to store the least lethal of his prisoners, the massive lake around it keeping most from escaping.

Of course, to an experienced shinobi, walking on water was child's play, but the inhabitants of the South Base were generally made up of kidnapped civilians and non-ninja from around the Land of Rice and its neighbors.

I felt a coil of disgust and loathing as I walked inside the boundaries of the base, almost physically able to feel the suffering and destruction that had taken place within its walls.

But slowly, disgust faded into surprise as we continued further in, and no one attempted to stop us.

"It's quiet," Suigetsu muttered, giving voice to my own thoughts. "Shouldn't that rumor about you killing Orochimaru have already spread out here? Security's pretty light too. I'd've expected rioting out here by this point."

I blinked and looked around. The ground was clear and unbroken around us, and the door to the base was wide open.

Trying to ignore the small coil of dread that drew itself up in my gut, I strode forward. "Come on."

Suigetsu followed once more.

XXX

The cages were empty.

All of them were open, the prisoners gone. There was no one in the hallways, not even one of Orochimaru's subordinates or a single test subject.

It was eerily quiet.

And where was Karin? I felt a hint of panic. What if the prisoners had escaped? What if there had been a riot and she had been killed? What if-

I ruthlessly crushed that train of thought. Panicking would get me nowhere. Instead, I took another slow look around the area, scanning through every nook and cranny, trying to find something that was out of place.

It took me a moment to realize that there was.

Everything was perfect, ordered. Nothing was broken, or out of place. The cages were open, and the prisoners gone, but they had been unlocked, not broken down by jutsu.

I almost didn't notice the faint chakra that appeared in my sensing range behind me. When I did, I smiled, but didn't turn around.

It came up to us, closer and closer. When it was around ten feet away, I spoke up without turning around. "Karin."

Karin and Suigetsu froze.

The former was the first to recover. "I suppose," she said at last, "the fact that you're here means that the rumors are true. Orochimaru is dead, isn't he, Sasuke?"

I raised an eyebrow internally. No honorific? She had gotten better, at least.

"Yeah, he is." _Though you already knew that, didn't you Karin?_

Suigetsu and I turned around, and he shot me a puzzled glance. Karin's face was carefully blank, her eyes cold.

I knew that that was just surface level. Karin's chakra rolled off of her in a mix of a thousand emotions. Melancholy, happiness, pain, love, but most of all… relief.

"What are you doing here, Sasuke?" she asked, her voice not giving a single hint of her inner turmoil.

I almost opened my mouth to continue, but stopped myself when I saw Suigetsu step forward.

He sighed, closing his eyes as if in preparation for something especially unpleasant. "Sasuke wanted to talk to you, y'see," he said, "And either way, can you take us to another room? We've been walking all day, and standing out here while talking is a drag."

Instead of responding to Suigetsu, though, Karin just tilted her head and looked over his shoulder at me. "What 'talk'?"

My silver-haired companion suddenly looked very, very annoyed. "Hey, Karin!" he snarled, marching up to her. "Like I said, talking out here is a drag! I know you don't give a shit about me, but for fuck's sake!"

She humphed, then leaned forward and sniffed at him. "You give me the creeps."

I grinned internally. That was just like Karin, trying to keep me and Suigetsu off balance.

Unfortunately for her, it was only working on one of us, and while letting Suigetsu get angry and end up attacking her would be amusing, it would also run contrary to my goals.

"Drop it Karin," I ordered, stepping next to her. "Take us to another room."

She turned to me again, and her internal turmoil intensified again as her eyes passed over me. However, when she spoke, it was with an annoyed lilt in her voice.

"Yeah, fine."

XXX

"Karin," I began without preamble, "I need you. Come with me."

I had taken several precautions as I seated myself, making sure to rest back and spreading my arms to give the redhead a good look at my chest. If nothing else, it would throw her off balance and make her capitulate far more easily than otherwise.

Karin herself looked shocked.

I could tell that she really wasn't.

"What do you mean, come with you? I have to take care of this place!"

I blinked. Fortunately, Suigetsu spoke before I had to.

"You… have to take care of an empty base?"

Karin crossed her arms and huffed. "Not the prisoners, idiot. The _research_. The _secrets_. Do you know how many people would kill to get their hands on that stuff? Do you know how dangerous it would be if it got out?"

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Where _are_ the prisoners, Karin?"

Karin clammed up, her arms stiffening at her sides. Looking closely at her, I noticed her eyes flitting to Suigetsu and back to me again.

With my eyes still fixed on her, I spoke. "Speaking of that research…" I reached into my pouch, drew out a small sealing scroll, and tossed it to the other boy in the room. "Suigetsu, go gather it up. All of it."

Suigetsu glanced at it. "_All_ of it, Sasuke? Do I _have_-"

"_Now_."

Suigetsu shut up, and glancing between the two of us, finally stalked out of the room in a huff, slamming the door behind him.

XXX

Karin and I remained silent for a bit after that, staring, measuring. She shifted, slowly positioning herself in front of the door, arms behind her back.

I just stared, trying to find some sort of chink in her expression. She had seemingly chosen that moment to start suppressing her chakra. Unusually slow of her.

A click resounded through the room, made loud by the surrounding quietness.

_Did she just lock the door?_

I was broken away from _that_ thought by a sweet, sultry voice.

"I'll come."

It took me a couple of seconds to realize that it had been _Karin_ who had spoken.

"What?"

She stepped forward, sliding her glasses off her eyes.

"Sasuke…" her voice was both incredibly nice and incredibly discomfiting. I suddenly felt, and barely resisted, the urge to rub my legs together. "If you ask me to come… then I'll go."

She moved forward like a panther stalking its prey. I felt every single hackle in my body rising as she approached, hips swaying seductively. It took every ounce of self-control to avoid gasping when she lowered herself down onto my lap.

I gulped as she leaned over to whisper, her breath brushing against my ear.

"Hey, Sasuke…"

"Y-yes?" I asked, the stammer sneaking its way into my voice.

"Is this… what you _expected_ me to do, you foolish man?"

_Oh shi-_

I barely had time to feel my eyes widen before she drew back and drove a chakra-enhanced fist into my gut with all her strength.

Karin was not particularly strong, but she had both caught me off guard and in an… awkward… position. I wasn't able to defend myself as the air in my stomach whooshed out in an instant, and the red-haired girl rose to her feet to let me double over.

"You _idiot_!" she screamed, and I winced despite myself. "Do you have _any_ idea how worried I was when you decided to attack Orochimaru on your own? Didn't you agree you'd let me help?"

I let out gasps of breath, coughing. "Circumstances…" I let out between my wheezing, "forced my hand…"

"_Circumstances_…!" she screeched. "Your circumstances can go-"

She trailed off into a tirade about just how _little_ she cared about my "circumstances", complete with graphic descriptions about how she would defenestrate, disembowel, and massacre them if they ever made me do something as stupidly _moronic_ as try to repeat that stunt.

I tuned her out for a minute and focused on bringing enough strength back into my legs to keep myself from stumbling as I raised myself back to my feet.

And when I finally managed to steady myself, I realized that Karin was no longer angry at me.

No, this was something far, _far_ worse.

She was _crying_.

Before I could react, Karin flung herself into my chest, driving the air out of me again as I slammed back into the chair.

A pained whimper rose to my lips, but Karin's own sobbing drowned it out.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, _Sasuke_…" she cried into my breast, "I was so _scared_! You just left me that note saying that you were going to face Orochimaru! And then, when I heard the rumors he was dead, I could barely hope…"

I forced a grin to my face and brought my arms up to embrace her, pulling her close. "I thought you had a bit more faith in me than that…" I murmured into her hair.

The next few minutes were filled with the gentle sound of Karin's sobs, and my own awkward reassurances.

Finally, she pulled away, eyes still red. "If you _ever_," she said, pointing a finger at my still-tear-stained chest, "do that again, I'll kill you _myself_ the next time I see you!"

I inclined my head with a small smile in response. "Of course," I murmured.

She stared at me, looking at my face for any hint of a lie, and a moment later, nodded and got up.

"Karin," I started, rising from the seat after her, "what happened to the prisoners?"

She sniffled again, and brought her hands up to her eyes. "I released them," she responded at last.

I blinked. "You… released them? But…"

I trailed off. Karin hadn't known if I had survived, but she had still released the prisoners.

Either she had been expecting my arrival… or if I had failed…

Orochimaru would never have allowed her to live if I had.

I didn't know what to say, so I spoke the first thing that came to mind.

"Why?"

Karin smiled.

"It's what you would have wanted."

I blinked, opened my mouth to respond to that, not sure what I was going to say.

And the door fell open, sliced to pieces.

XXX

Suigetsu sighed.

"Haaa… I hope that didn't nick my sword…"

I looked at him, one hand bloated and grown to proportions far beyond the other, the Kubikiriboucho driven into the ground in front of him. He glanced up, returning my gaze.

"So? Can we go? Karin's useless, right?"

I looked at him impassively. "No. It appears she's going to be accompanying us."

I turned to her, and saw her cross her arms and turned her nose up to me in a huff.

"H-hmph! Well of course I'm coming! If I leave Sasuke with someone like _you_," with that, she turned a sneer on Suigetsu, "he'll probably end up getting infected by stupidity!"

"W-what did you say!?" Suigetsu snarled in response.

I glanced between them, blinking, then realized what was happening.

Tsundere. Right.

Suigetsu glared, but instead of responding, for once, he decided to take the high road, turning to me and completely ignoring the redhead. He reached into his pouch and tossed a sealing scroll over to me.

I caught and pocketed it. I'd be reviewing these later on, in a better environment.

"So," he continued after a moment, "now that we have Karin, Juugo's next, right?"

Before I could respond, Karin broke in. "What? Sasuke, you're going after _Juugo_? Are you an idiot?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I thought we already established that just now."

Karin had the courtesy to flush in embarrassment at that. I allowed a trickle of chakra to my eyes, and they flashed red for an instant as I committed the moment to memory.

"W-well," she stuttered, "that's just more reason for me to go with you, Sasuke!"

There was no reason to disagree with that, so before either she or Suigetsu could get into another argument and delay our departure further, I started moving for the door.

"Come on. We don't have time to waste."

It was time to recruit the most dangerous member of our merry little band.

Despite myself, I had to say that I was looking forward to it.


	6. The Liar's Guide to Making Friends

Chapter 6: The Liar's Guide to Making Friends

The water sloshed against the rocks, throwing up a spray around the three of us.

"Haaah…" Suigetsu sighed, sitting down. "I'm already beat…"

Karin sneered. "You think you'll be able to survive the North Base like that? You're going to get yourself killed."

Suigetsu smirked. "I've only seen it on maps, actually. Is the North Base really that dangerous?"

Karin shot a worried glance at me before turning back to Suigetsu.

"The North Base isn't like the others," she said at last.

"Oh?" Suigetsu looked up at her.

Karin was looking at him, but I could tell her frown was directed at me. I pretended to not notice.

"The North Base," she responded at last, "is where the worst of Orochimaru's experiments are stored. The unmanageable monsters who even the elites of the Sound had trouble restraining."

I already knew this, of course, but showed nothing to indicate that was the case.

"And," Karin continued, "of these monsters, Juugo is the worst."

I felt a sudden itch on my neck. I didn't move to scratch it.

Suigetsu shrugged, taking a quick glance at me and noting my nonchalance, before pulling out his water bottle and taking a sip.

"Anyways… aren't you guys tired? Don't you wanna take a break?"

I remained impassive. Karin, on the other hand, snarled at him.

"You're such a damn slacker! There's still a ways to go before we reach the Northern Base."

Suigetsu sighed. "Whatever. Just go ahead. It's not like you care about me, and I'm too tired for this right now."

Karin's face flared to an interesting shade of red, different from the one on it when she looked at me. It was actually rather amusing.

"I-It's not like I want _you_ around either, y'know! I'm only putting up with you because Sasuke wants me to!"

Suigetsu just frowned and clicked his tongue in response, getting back to his feet.

I turned around and started walking.

"Let's go."

XXX

"Suigetsu," Karin asked, after we had stopped once more to help fend off the white-haired boy's constant spells of exhaustion, "why _are_ you following Sasuke anyways?"

Suigetsu's perpetual sharkish smile widened. "Well…" he started, rolling the word around in his mouth, as if considering, "I have a goal, and if I stick with Sasuke, I'll definitely be able to achieve it." He laughed suddenly, as if at an internal joke, and turned to me. "Though, I guess those are your words, right?"

I glanced up at him, but gave no response.

Karin continued staring at Suigetsu, before she opened her mouth and spoke once more, this time her voice grave.

"I don't really know about your goals or anything," she started. I had to hold back a snort at that. She already knew _everything_ about my goal, the liar. "But even knowing what sort of creature Juugo is, you still want to recruit him?"

Suigetsu's smile widened further, if that was possible. "Well…" he started, "I was actually put up against him once before. He had an interesting ability, and was pretty damn strong, but… I can't say I liked him that much."

I knew that. It was one of the reasons I had recruited him. Suigetsu was one of the few members of Orochimaru's subordinates who had shown the ability to check Juugo long enough that he could be restrained in the past.

"I heard that he came to Orochimaru of his own free will," he continued, then snorted. "He must have a screw loose."

And understatement, though one made for all the wrong reasons..

Karin frowned. "Rumor has it that Juugo is constantly repressing his murderous impulses, and that when he gives in, he turns into a remorseless, relentless killing machine."

Suigetsu looked up at her, took another sip from his water bottle, and shrugged. "So he's just a monster that enjoys killing people in fits of anger, then? Reminds me of Kisame-senpai..."

Karin continued speaking, now looking directly at me. That was fine. This entire diatribe had obviously been aimed at me from the beginning, after all. "I've also heard that Orochimaru was fascinated by his abilities. He used enzymes extracted from his body to induce certain transformations in similar individuals. You know that, don't you, Sasuke?"

My neck twitched once more. I looked away from her eyes.

Suigetsu, on the other hand, seemed suddenly curious.

Karin's eyes narrowed. "Juugo is the source of the cursed seal."

Suigetsu glanced at me.

I gave no reaction and instead rose to my feet.

"Let's go."

XXX

We were nearing the entrance to the North Base when Suigetsu stumbled once again.

"Hey…" he asked, between heaves of breath. "Can we stop for a bit? I'm totally beat…"

I didn't look back, despite my growing annoyance. This was already the fifth stop. Perhaps I had made a mistake, getting Suigetsu first, if he was going to slow us down this much.

I didn't say it, of course. I wouldn't alienate him. He was too useful for that.

Karin, on the other hand, had no such qualms.

"Suigetsu, ya idiot! You're always stopping us to take a damn break!"

I ignored them both instead, continuing forward for a few steps to take a look at the outer guard post for the base nestled on the ridge above us.

Karin continued ranting in the background, unheeding to our surroundings.

"Is it that sword? Is it that damn sword? Just take that and thr-"

"Karin," I cut through her next sentence with that one word.

She turned around. "Sasuke?"

I kept staring at the point I had been looking at as she came up next to me.

"Where's the guard?"

I could see even from here that there was no one up there.

That was wrong. There should have always been a guard up there on duty.

Karin glanced after me, blinking as she figured it out. "You're right. That's strange…"

"Can you feel it?" I murmured soft enough only for her to hear as she walked up next to me. There were several large, unfamiliar chakras running around the hideout. All of them were foul, dark, and tainted. All of them were larger than the ones that I knew were regularly placed to guard Orochimaru's base.

Karin blinked, and brought her hand up into a single seal, gasping a moment later.

"Sasuke, what…"

"Hey!" Suigetsu's voice broke in between us. "In front of you!"

I looked over, and saw a single man, dressed in the uniform of one of Orochimaru's elite troops, shambling towards us, as if every step was an effort. He collapsed after a couple of feet.

Karin and I walked over, kneeling next to him and turning him over.

He blinked and opened his eyes, blearily taking in my features.

"Are-" he coughed, a wet sound, as if he had a soaked cloth down his throat, "Are you… Uchiha… Sasuke?"

I nodded.

He blinked and looked up at me, and spoke, voice filled with weak desperation.

"Please…" he said, then coughed again, a flecks of blood appearing around his mouth, "You have… to save us… The experiments…"

He let out a last gasp, and sagged like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Aaah." Suigetsu muttered from behind me, as if he was talking about the weather. Bad weather. "He died."

Before I could respond to that, we were distracted as a sudden, large orange man spun out of the sky and landed on the ground several feet away. His body was warped and twisted unnaturally, arms with spiked fins protruding from them and a tail growing from his lower back. Two horns extended from his head, granting him a demonic appearance.

I rose and started walking towards him.

Ame-no-Murakumo and my sheathed Kusanagi were both stuck in my belt, both also in easy access of my right hand.

I reached down, and touched Ame-no-Murakumo, before lowering my grip to the chokuto.

Orochimaru's blade was one that thirsted for the blood of its foes. I had known that fact from the moment I had picked it up. It was not a weapon that that could easily be used non-lethally. Every inch of it was dedicated to a quick, clean death.

On the other hand, my Kusanagi, while it could be used to kill, was also capable of simple incapacitation, at least in my hands.

He was large and strong, his entire form built for killing. From the way he had leapt off the cliff to the ground just moments before, I could also tell that he was highly mobile.

A lethal enemy, for any average shinobi.

The orange man-turned-monster continued looking at me, face twisted in bewilderment. "You're…"

I moved, flashing across the sands between us with blinding speed, and slicing through his side in a single blow, chokuto in hand.

A lethal enemy for an average shinobi, but one second was still all I needed.

How boring.

Without bothering to wait for reactions from the peanut gallery, I sheathed the blade as the man crumpled to the ground, still breathing, but with shock written on his features, cursed seal receding almost immediately, and started moving forward.

"Let's go."

XXX

"The wardens… have been annihilated," Karin said at last.

I observed the group of experiments standing in front of us, most of them in some stage of the Cursed Seal transformation. Many of them were probably prototypes for the seal on my neck.

Suigetsu drew the Kubikiriboucho from his back and began fastening the hilt to it. "So? There's a lot, Sasuke. How can we tell if Juugo's with 'em?"

He wasn't. I could already tell that.

But it wouldn't do to drop appearances.

"Karin," I addressed her, "is Juugo with them?"

She rolled her eyes. "Geez. You're so annoying," she muttered as she brought up her hands in front of her. A moment later, she shook her head. "He's not."

Suigetsu's shark-smile widened. "So… it's okay to go wild on these guys, right, Sasuke?"

I didn't smile. "No. Killing."

Suigetsu frowned. "Ugh… you really _are_ from Konoha, aren'tcha? It's not like you had to spare that guy from before either…"

I didn't respond. With Orochimaru dead, there was no reason to kill these people. In a short time, the Sannin's cursed chakra would run out, and they would no longer be able to transform into monsters either way.

He raised the Executioner's Blade up in front of him in a ready stance. I sheathed my own and leaned forward, ready to burst into motion in an instant.

I wouldn't need a sword for these weaklings.

"Let's go."

XXX

A couple of minutes, and a couple hundred bodies later, the lower floor of the North Hideout was clear, the last man falling back as his cursed seal receded.

"You're… too strong…" he whispered as he lost consciousness.

I looked down at him with a mix of sadness and pity.

None of these people had asked for what Orochimaru had done to them either. None of them had deserved it either.

I could only take some small comfort from the fact that their transformations would soon leave them permanently, allowing them some degree of normalcy back into their lives.

I was broken from my ruminations by a voice from another hall.

"I've found the keys!" Karin cried to me.

I turned to her, nodded, then walked past.

"Let's go."

XXX

We moved through the now-empty hallway, the sound of our footsteps echoing through the cavernous passages.

"Which way next, Karin?" I asked her.

I reiterated to myself that maintaining appearances was important. This was especially true when trying to hide a secret like the fact that I was able to sense chakra myself.

"Hmph! Who put you in charge, huh?"

I almost rolled my eyes. was getting annoying. Karin seemed to enjoy needling me just because she knew it would get a reaction out of our other companion.

And true to form, he answered.

"Oh, come on, Karin," Suigetsu said, voice filled with a sort of sarcastic, jolly frivolity. "That's your only talent, isn't it? Point us the right way."

Karin snorted, but didn't protest further, raising her hand to point down the hall near Suigetsu. "That way."

Suigetsu started, but I stopped him. "Wait. Let me lead."

If Juugo was as dangerous as I remembered, then it wouldn't do to have Suigetsu taken out in some sort of sneak attack. It would defeat the whole purpose of recruiting him first, after all.

Suigetsu sighed, but acquiesced. I had taken a few steps down the hall before I realized that Karin wasn't following.

I turned around and frowned at her. "What's wrong?"

She was wringing her hands, standing still with an embarrassed look on her face. "Er… Imsorryitsactuallythiswaynotthere!" She exclaimed, pointing down the opposite passage.

I blinked once, twice, then nearly slapped my face in annoyance. Nearly.

Suigetsu's reaction wasn't nearly as mild.

"Karin! You bitch! You were trying to separate me from you two, weren't you? What's your problem anyways?"

Karin's face immediately went from embarrassment to fury. "Hah! I just didn't want your loud, stupid mouth constantly annoying me and Sasuke, you idiot! Maybe you should just pack up and leave, huh? You're just slowing us down anyways!"

"Why you-"

"Shut _up_!" I snarled, finally reaching a boiling point.

They shut up.

I rubbed my forehead, before taking a deep, calming breath. The two of them were watching me expectantly, like children looking to their teacher for a lecture.

I didn't care enough to try.

"Follow me," I said at last. "And you two _please_ stop trying to sabotage each other? At least temporarily?"

They both nodded slowly.

I sighed. "Let's go."

XXX

Karin stopped in front of a steel-plated door with four locks.

I glanced at her. "Here?"

She nodded in response, and inserted the key, opening each lock, the tumblers falling one after another in the loud silence surrounding us, though Suigetsu kept smiling anyways.

As the last lock fell and Karin reached for the door, the Hozuki smiled and shrugged. "Heh. I guess we'll finally be able to see what all the fuss is about, eh, Sasuke?"

I gave him a sidelong glance, and caught Karin's wrist. "Suigetsu," I said, looking over at him, "you're entering first. Go."

The silver-haired boy glanced at me, then sighed in exasperation. "Another little 'test', Sasuke? Haven't you already had enough of these?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You're expendable, and Karin isn't. I'd prefer he kill you, if anyone is going to die in a surprise attack."

It was a joke, but he didn't know that.

I've been known to be vindictive in the past, and I hadn't forgotten Suigetsu's incessant needling of Karin during our journey to the North Base.

Suigetsu recoiled, face a picture of mock-indignant shock, and Karin smirked. "So mean!" he cried.

I shrugged. "Well, that and Karin's too weak to survive anything Juugo could throw at her."

This time, Karin glared at me, and Suigetsu smirked.

I hadn't exactly forgiven her yet either.

I looked over at Suigetsu, allowing the edges of my lips to twitch up in amusement. "Don't forget that you're still going in first, Suigetsu."

That wiped the smile off of his face, and chastised, he reached for the knob as I pulled Karin aside with me, watching what was about to occur.

Suigetsu didn't so much fly back and smash into the wall as he did _explode_ into a puddle of water with Juugo's first strike.

"Hahahahaha! I killed hiiiiiimmmmmmm! Hahahahahahaha!"

Black markings had already spread across his face, though his body was still untransformed. I watched him continue to scream his bloodlust into the hallway as Karin drew closer to me in fear.

"S-Sasuke…" she whispered to me. "Aren't you gonna…"

Then, Juugo turned to us, cutting her off with another cackle.

"So… who's ne-"

That was when, Suigetsu reformed behind him, body stretching up from the puddle of water, and swung the Kubikiriboucho in a massive arc, the blade catching Juugo on the back and sending him flying past me and Karin to the end of the corridor with a whoosh of air, smashing into the wall at the far end with a crash..

"Hey! Try to give a guy some _warning_, will ya?!" he snarled as he, swinging the blade up onto his shoulder as he charged the already-recovering giant.

"Don't kill him," I said calmly as the Hozuki passed.

He didn't bother to answer, and steel clashed on a jagged carapace as Juugo brought up his right arm, already transformed in a grotesque, spiked club of sorts.

Suigetsu spun the blade, light dancing on the edge as he swung it in another wide, clumsy arc.

"Tch! So persistent!"

But this time, Juugo was faster, driving a blow into the Hozuki's stomach that would have pulped any other man, but on his opponent, simply caused the area to explode into a shower of water. Suigetsu responded by continuing his motion and catching Juugo on his chest.

"Hahahahahahaha! You're great! You didn't die! Hahahahahahahahaha!"

The larger man had already prepared himself, and instead of tumbling gracelessly back, he moved with the motion of the blade, landing on all fours and sliding back several feet.

Both clicked their tongues simultaneously and charged at each other again, meeting in another clash of steel and sparks.

"Sasuke?" Karin asked. I looked down and noticed that she was looking up at me, now nestled on my chest. Our faces were inches apart, and my arms were wrapped around her.

Suddenly, I felt uncomfortable. Letting go of her, I reached into my pouch and pulled out a sealing scroll, much like the one I had given Suigetsu back in the South Base.

"Karin," I murmured. "Go gather up the research in the base. I'm interested in Orochimaru's experiments regarding the cursed seal."

She looked at me, eyes still wide with fear. I smiled reassuringly. Or tried to.

"Don't worry. Just gather the research. I'll make sure things don't get out of control here."

She flushed, and I channeled a small bit of chakra to my eyes, allowing them to flicker red for just an instant, holding back a grin.

Another fond memory for the collection.

Hesitantly, she pulled away, and with a fearful glance back at the melee raging behind her, scurried off past me, scroll clutched tightly, and I turned back to the clash at the end of the corridor, folding my arms contemplatively as I watched.

Suigetsu's movements were better than they had been at the start of the fight. The clumsy swings from before were slowly becoming smoother and more confident. Instead of attempting to swing the sword with his own strength, he was now varying his center of balance and allowing gravity and the blade's own weight to work with his blows.

Juugo, if anything, had become even more ferocious than he had been before. His body had now transformed further, his other arm covered with a red-orange carapace

However, while the two of them were even, I could see that Suigetsu was tiring, his blows becoming weaker and weaker as Juugo continued to pound against his defense.

Finally, he was blown back past me, splattering against the wall on the other side of the corridor, just like he had sent Juugo at the start of their fight.

Juugo charged, that screaming laughter of his filling the corridor once more even as Suigetsu reformed once more, now panting.

I had seen enough.

As Juugo passed, I stuck out my foot and tripped him, sending him sprawling to the floor with a loud crash.

"Suigetsu," I said calmly, as I walked past the monster that was even now trying to get back to its feet. "That's enough. Retreat, and I'll take care of the rest."

Suigetsu, now fully-reformed and back on his feet, grinned. "Thanks, Sasuke. Did I pass?"

I nodded, arms still crossed under my sleeves, then shifted my head slightly to the right, allowing Juugo's punch to fly wildly over my shoulder, ducking under a clumsy grab the next instant and then leaping over a low-aimed sweep.

"Go."

Suigetsu didn't protest.

Juugo's next blow was a kick aimed at the center of my back.

I flipped up, and landed on his extended leg, then spun around and viciously drove my knee into the larger man's chin with bone-crunching force, sending him tumbling back down the hall.

Watching him start to get up, snarling as the last bits of his face finished their transformation, I smirked.

"Now then…"

I unfurled my arms, and made the universal gesture for "come and get it" to the screaming giant.

"Let's _go_."

XXX

Juugo charged, barreling forward like a rampaging bull. Instead of attempting to meet his attack, I stepped aside and drove my foot into the side of his right knee as he passed, cracking the carapace.

Juugo stumbled, crashing into the wall and crumpling ignominiously, sending splinters of wood lancing through the air. However, instead of getting back up, he lashed at me with the tail now growing from his lower back, attempting to wrap it around my neck.

In a single movement, I drew the Ame-no-Murakumo, severing the tip of the appendage and sending it retreating back to Juugo's body as the large man stumbled to his feet, then re-sheathed the sword once more.

"Kill ya! I'll kill ya!"

The thin smile on my lips turn up further as Juugo moved forward me. This time, he was even faster than before, propelled forward by some rocket-like protrusions that had grown from his back, screaming half in fury, half in ecstasy all the while.

Too fast, and there wasn't enough distance for me to dodge this time. I knew that if one of Juugo's blows even grazed me, I would probably be thrown through three walls just by the sheer force of the blow.

So instead, I moved with it, drawing my still-sheathed chokuto from behind me, then jabbing the length of it into the side of Juugo's arm as it approached my face, using the force to propel myself sideways.

The entire wall which I had been in front of, moments before _shattered_, the man-turned-monster's fist ripping it to pieces like wet tofu.

Definitely couldn't afford to be hit by that.

Instead, I danced forward, and this time, instead of striking with a blunted edge, I drew the chokuto fully from its sheath, lightning running over its edge.

Then I jabbed it into the crack on Juugo's leg where I had kicked him before. The blade penetrated through the chitinous outer layer of skin, and through the flesh and bone underneath, piercing through the floor on the other end.

Juugo howled, and tried to move his stabbed foot to kick me away. Key operator, in this case, being "tried". Instead of actually rising from the ground, the entire limb just twitched ineffectually, the currents of the chidori causing the blade to vibrate within him and numb the area, stealing all control of the limb from the man.

I took the opportunity to drive my fist into his skull, leaving the blade in his leg.

He flew through the broken area where the wall had once been, smashing into the next wall over, coughing up blood as the wound on his leg immediately started closing up around the obstructing blade, trapping the weapon.

He growled then, getting into another low stance, about to charge again.

I didn't give him the chance. Instead, I moved forward, blindingly fast, hand chirping with the sound of a thousand birds as I drove it towards his chest. He seemed to notice that, instinctually bringing up a hand that was rapidly growing a paddle-shaped protrusion out of its edge up to guard himself.

I let my right leg sag, dropping under his guard, and instead grabbing the blade lodged in his flesh, letting the chidori flow along its length and pulling the blade out with a wrenching motion.

Juugo howled again, this time just collapsing to one knee, applying pressure to the limb to stem the flow of blood as the wound once again closed.

I raised the blade up to rest on my shoulder and waited for it to heal completely. When it was finally done, and the man started to rise once more, I shrugged, and pointed my empty hand at him.

"Well, looks like you pass too."

A massive snake flew out of my sleeve, wrapping the giant in its coils before the man could even widen his eyes in shock. He immediately began struggling against his bonds mightily, trying to free himself as I advanced inexorably towards him.

And then, I spiked my chakra, allowing it to fill the cavern, cracking the walls around us as it suffused the air.

Juugo froze mid-motion, like a puppet dangling from an unskilled puppeteer's hands.

Then he collapsed to the ground, transformation receding completely in a few seconds. I allowed the snake to pop away in a puff of smoke a moment later.

"Sasuke!" two voices called out simultaneously from one end of the hallway as I knelt down next to the orange-haired man. I glanced up and saw Karin and Suigetsu running down the corridor.

Juugo's eyes flickered open, and Suigetsu put a hand to his sword. I glanced at him and shook my head slightly, and he let go with a frown.

Then, Juugo looked up, bleary for a moment, glancing around, his face slowly transforming into a rictus of unadulterated horror.

He screamed, and before we could stop him, he scrambled back through the wall and into his cell, slamming the door behind him.

I frowned, then paced over to the steel barrier and knocked.

"G-go away!" The voice was shrill. Far more so than I thought a man Juugo's size had a right being. "If you don't, I'll kill you too!"

I blinked, and Suigetsu walked up behind me. "Hey, Sasuke. If he doesn't want to be moved, maybe it's better to just leave him here. This guy's dangerous."

I turned to him and gave him a glare which told him to shut up, lest I decide to leave _him_ here, then turned back to the door.

"Juugo. I need you. Come with me."

A laugh, strained and hoarse, like a man just cognizant enough to be horrified by his own hysteria. "You don't get it! I can't leave this place! Please, lock the door!"

I listened, a faint hint of pity seeping its way into my mind.

Juugo wanted to stay here, to live out the rest of his days in peace. I knew that.

But I needed him, nonetheless.

"I came here to set you free, Juugo. Join me," I repeated, gently ruthless, even though I made no move to reopen the steel door.

"He's scared," Suigetsu noted, hearing the sobs coming from the cracks in the door.

Then, Karin broke in. "No," she said, shaking her head as I craned to look at her, "that's not it."

Suigetsu tilted his head, a small frown on his face.

"Please…" Juugo half-screamed, "I don't want to kill anymore! Can't you just leave?"

Suigetsu blinked, turning to stare at the steel wall, as if it held some fascinating riddle which he had only now noticed.

"The hell? He's acting completely different now. It's like there's another person entirely in there."

"Didn't I tell you?" Karin responded, "Juugo isn't able to control his urges to kill. He can't control himself, even if he doesn't want to hurt anyone." I blinked at the pity I heard there. Karin wasn't usually so sympathetic.

But then, hearing the sobs emanating from the still-unlocked door, though, I couldn't help but understand. That would melt the iciest of hearts.

"I don't know when I might end up killing again! Please, lock the door!" Pleading, begging for his own death.

It was wrong, and I hated it.

And I enjoy crushing things that I hate.

"See?" Suigetsu muttered behind me, "This guy's dangerous, Sasuke. I can barely stand next to him without getting nervous."

"What's wrong with you?" he asked between sobs. "Just leave me alone!"

I saw Karin and Suigetsu both look at me, from the corner of my eye, dark frowns plastered over their features. I didn't acknowledge them. Instead, I started moving closer to the door.

"Orochimaru is dead," I said calmly, cajoling. "This hideout has collapsed. If you stay here, you'll die."

He had come to my former teacher to gain a cage, but I knew that a man who desired a cage, rather than an eternal rest, was also a man who wished to live. I sought to appeal to that now.

Juugo's voice came back. "So be it," he whispered, drained, accepting, _disgusting_.

I stopped.

People change. Juugo had come to Orochimaru years ago, and now he obviously found his cage to his liking. What had been a wish to live and not kill before was now replaced by the wish to not kill, his life having lost its meaning to him.

But then, if he could, why not trade one cage for another, prettier one? One that offered more freedom, and the possibility of doing good?

I leaned closer to the door.

"Don't worry," I declared firmly, "Come with me, and _I_ will serve as your cage. I will stop you."

Juugo's voice when it returned was sullen, tired. "What can you do?" he whispered. "Only Kimimaro was able to stop me. I won't leave unless he's here."

A frown creased my lips. Did he not know?

I heard Suigetsu and Karin muttering over my shoulder, but I tuned them out.

"Juugo," I said at last, not allowing any quaver to enter my voice, "Kimimaro died for me."

A slight gasp from Juugo, then the corridor went completely silent. Even Karin and Suigetsu shut up completely, realizing that I had just said something extraordinarily important.

I waited patiently for Juugo to process that bit of information for what seemed like hours, remaining silent.

When Juugo spoke at last, his voice was suddenly composed, though not cold. There was something new there, something almost resembling curiosity.

"He died… for you?" Juugo asked in a voice barely above a whisper. "Then you're… Uchiha… Sasuke?"

"Yes."

It was all that needed to be said.

There was another silence. Then, the sound of chains clanking together from within the cell in front of me.

The door swung open, and Juugo exited, a look of purpose on his face. He paused when he saw me, watching, considering, as one would a close friend of a relative on their first introduction.

And after a short while spent just staring at me, his mouth quirked into something that wasn't quite a smile, and he nodded.

I inclined my head back, and turned to walk away, and gestured to both Karin and Suigetsu.

"Let's go."

XXX

"With this," I declared without inflection, facing my new team, "Everyone is gathered. It is time to discuss our goal."

The three of them watched in tense silence. Juugo was implacable, but there was a tension in his shoulders that had not been there when I first placed him in his new cage. Suigetsu's perpetual smirk was gone, replaced by a half-frown that made him look uncharacteristically serious. Even Karin was biting her lip, despite being the only member of our merry band with whom I had already discussed my desire.

"Our goal," I said coldly, as much to tell them as to make the words real to myself, to force myself to understand that I would finally begin the final stage of a pursuit that had lasted almost half my life, "is to kill my brother, Uchiha Itachi of Akatsuki."

Suigetsu shrugged. "Just as expected."

Juugo just watched on, not reacting, as if my fratricidal declaration had passed over his head.

Karin was biting her lip, a look of mixed fear and sadness on her face.

I ignored them, and continued speaking. "In order to achieve this goal, I would like you to lend me your strength. Of course," I continued before anyone could interject, "I won't force any of you to follow. If you want to leave, then do so now."

Suigetsu was the first to speak, a vicious, anticipatory smirk twisting his lips up, exposing his shark-teeth to the world. "Heh… I gave you my word I'd help you if you got me this sword, so I'll follow you, Sasuke," he shrugged. "Plus, Itachi's partner, Hoshigaki Kisame, is one of the members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and the current owner of the Samehada. If I want to achieve my goal, I'll need to retrieve his sword too."

Karin snorted. "What? So you're going through all this trouble just so you can get _another_ blade? Pathetic."

The Hozuki's glared at her, face suddenly twisted into a look of mixed annoyance and fury, though Karin didn't seem to notice.

"Suigetsu…" I said, a warning laced in my tone.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." He looked away sullenly.

"Karin," I said, turning to the red-haired girl next to stop her from further needling Suigetsu, "what about you?"

She looked at me like I was a dunce for even asking. "Of _course_ I'll be coming with you, Sasuke. Who else could stop you from pulling stupid stunts like that thing with Orochimaru?"

Suigetsu grinned, evidently seeing a chance to needle his "rival" a bit. "Heh. More like you just want to get in his pan-"

Karin punched him. Hard. His head exploded into a shower of water.

"Oh, goodness," he gurgled as his lower jaw and mouth reformed, still grinning, "looks like I touched a nerve there!"

Karin was drawing back for another punch before I spiked my chakra for just an instant.

Both of them froze, glancing at me and noting my annoyance, then backed off, evidently not wanting to anger me further that day.

I turned to Juugo.

"And you?" I asked, even though I already half-knew the answer.

Juugo looked at me, and spoke, his voice now calm, even, and measured. "Kimimaro told me that you were his reincarnation, Sasuke, and he gave his life protecting you. That's why I want to see just what kind of shinobi you are."

"_I want to know whether you were worth his sacrifice"_

It passed unsaid between us, and unnoted by the other two, who were now in the middle of giving each other the evil eye.

I closed my eyes, savoring the moment.

They shot open a moment later, and I felt the fullness of my purpose suffuse me.

"Then it's decided."

They were paying attention now, all three of them.

"We will travel as a group of four. Our team shall go under the name 'Taka'."

Suigetsu's eyes were narrowed, Juugo remained impassive, and Karin adjusted her glasses.

And for a moment, just a single instant, I saw another team there, one even more familiar. Blonde, pink, and silver.

"Taka has but one goal…"

I trailed off, driving in the moment for both myself and the three in front of me.

"Uchiha Itachi."

**A/N**: Finally.

Consider this an apology of sorts for the long wait for the last chapter, and the relative shortness of it. This is now the end of the Taka filler arc. Next chapter, the true action starts.

Have to say I'm looking forward to it.

**Jutsu Glossary**:

Kusanagi no Tsurugi: Chidorigatana - Sword of Kusanagi: Chidori Katana: Sasuke channels his Chidori through his sword, granting it immense cutting power and allowing it to slice through most defenses. In addition to this, if the blade is stuck in flesh, it numbs the area around it with the electrical currents.


	7. The Liar's Guide to Unexpected Meetings

Chapter 7: The Liar's Guide to Unexpected Meetings

"Man… this place is sketchy," Suigetsu muttered as we walked through the deserted streets of the Uchiha silo. "What is this it? Some sorta ghost town?"

I had been busying myself reading one of Orochimaru's scrolls in my head, having already committed the images of the pages into memory with my sharingan, but stopped at Suigetsu's question.

"It's the site of a weapons cache used by my clan," I responded, not turning back as I navigated the still-familiar streets. "I've brought us here to prepare for the coming battles."

All of them noticed the plural, but none commented.

I stopped in front of a building with a cavernous opening that seemed to stretch on without end.

And then, just as I was about to open my mouth, to tell them we had arrived at our destination, I froze, a sudden chill running up my spine. Before any of my teammates could speak, I held up one hand, gesturing at them all to be silent and hide.

To their credit, none of them questioned me, immediately scattering amongst the ruined buildings around us, I myself jumping to the roof facing the entrance, so that I had a clear view of the interior.

There was someone here. A chakra that made me feel like an icicle was shoved up my spine. A power and confidence that bespoke long years of experience. A cold grey shroud of neutrality, which barely concealed the bubbling darkness within.

A very _familiar_ someone.

I watched, sharingan activated, my eyes straining to penetrate the darkness as he rounded the corner, slowly pacing forward, his left hand casually outside his sleeve, resting on the lapel of his cloak like it was in a cast.

A black cloak with a deep, dark red color winding in a pattern across it, looking like a splattering of blood on its surface.

But beyond the red of his cloak, what truly drew the eye was the color of his eyes, shining out from between bangs of midnight-black hair hidden underneath a simple straw hat.

Crimson. A deep, beautiful color, even more vibrant than the blood that coursed through his veins, the blood that stained his cloak, a color broken in only four places in the iris.

A black pupil, and three, swirling tomoe.

It had been a possibility from the beginning, encountering _him_ here, but even then, the reality of it was something else entirely. This was an Uchiha base, after all, and he was still an Uchiha, even if he was a traitor..

I didn't wait. I didn't give any warning at all. Not even a signal to Suigetsu and Juugo who were hiding on the opposite roof.

I simply exploded into motion, the blade I had taken from Orochimaru held in a reverse grip, up at an angle that would allow me to impale him with the sheer force of my charge.

"_Itachi_!"

XXX

His reaction was instantaneous.

Itachi did not so much block my blow as _flow_ around it, graceful and efficient, not a single wasted motion as he grabbed my arm, flipped over my head, holding my sleeve in his hand, and flung me body first into the wall of the building which I had just been standing on top of.

I wasn't even able to brace myself before I crunched into it, then _through_ it, smashing out all the way on the other end of the building before smacking against the ground several times and finally regaining my feet, sliding back another yard before I brought myself to a complete stop.

I could already feel the clashing chakras on the other side of the hole as Suigetsu and Juugo took my cue and followed up on the attack, Itachi no doubt avoiding their blows with as much ease as he had stopped mine.

I didn't bother to try and recover completely from that, simply performing a sealless shunshin back to my starting position just in time to see Itachi perfectly deflect the Kubikiriboucho with the point of a kunai to the flat of the blade as he produced a brace of shuriken in the other and flung them, one-handed, at Juugo, from point-blank range.

Every single one of the three shuriken struck one of Juugo's still-untransformed limbs, the giant roaring as he was forced to bring up his hands to protect his face. The markings from his transformation spread across them, transforming them into large clubs with shield-like appendages growing from each end.

With a well-placed kick, Juugo was sent flying at me, and I only barely sidestepped the giant in time to prevent myself from returning to my previous position.

Then, I stabbed Orochimaru's blade into the ground, reached back, and activated the seal on the bandage on my wrist, summoning a massive fuuma shuriken to my hands.

Then I threw it, directly at my brother as he leapt back from Suigetsu, just as he was about to land.

Itachi rolled as he struck the ground, spinning an inch above it as he moved _under_ the fuma shuriken.

And that was when he noticed the second one that I had hidden in the first's shadow, now directly approaching his head.

His eyes widened, but rather than panicking, his hand shot out, and he _pushed_ off of the ground just as the first fuma shuriken passed, but before the second reached him, rising another foot off the ground, barely avoiding it.

And that was when I pulled the Ame-no-Murakumo out of the ground and threw it at him, blade first.

Itachi didn't even bother to dodge this time. Instead, that kunai he had used to stop the Kubikiriboucho lashed out, and just as precisely as if he was threading a needle, the point struck the top of my flying sword's, diverting its course just enough that it would miss his body.

And then, as it sailed past, he caught it by the hilt, landing on both feet without skipping a beat.

I sped forward, drawing my remaining sword in my right hand as lightning crackled around the left, and there was a clash of steel as Itachi blocked my sword with his.

I didn't pause, instead twisting my body, and trying to drive my lightning-sheathed left hand through his chest.

He caught it by the wrist, and then, I was looking into his blood-red eyes.

There was something there, an odd mixture of curiosity and surprise. It was an unfamiliar thing to see on Itachi's face. But that quickly melted away, and the coldness in his features reasserted itself.

"Still the same attacks as three years ago, Sasuke? Have you learned nothing since?" A faint hint of disappointment.

I snarled at the sheer _audacity_ of _him_ being disappointed in _me_, not even bothering to answer as my eyes began to spin, weaving a genjutsu over Itachi.

In a moment, the world of flesh was replaced by another one, a deep blue sea surrounding us. I held both my swords, and Itachi, his kunai, as we whirled and danced, steel flashing against steel, the mental battle continuing as we tried to assert our genjutsu on top of the other's.

"Have you forgotten what I told you on that night?" That maddening voice came from all around me now as Itachi asserted his will over the world around us, his taunt delivered with a mechanical sort of precision that made it all the more infuriating to hear.

I pushed back, not wanting to let him take control, knowing that if I lost here, I would die, forcing the voice away.

I refused to respond, to speak. That would simply make me fall back into his trap.

I lashed out, and Itachi dodged back, sliding out of my reach, but giving ground.

In the real world, my hands inched forward, just a bit closer to his vital areas.

Itachi retaliated, spinning around my followup with the sword in my left hand, and I was forced to duck, then flip back from him, giving ground myself.

And so it continued. I would lash out, the swords dancing in my fingers, and Itachi would flow around my blows, chipping away at my defense ever so slowly.

But even then, I was being pushed back.

I tried to mix up my forms, instead of using raw power to overwhelm him, partitioning some of my mind to wrest control of the environment around us, shaping waves to crash down upon him from behind as lightning sang through both of the swords in my hands, striking against his kunai, but not slicing through it.

Itachi jumped, spun, flipped, and melted around my strikes, not even slowing down as he continued to come, battering against my will.

"Foolish little brother… Did you truly believe that killing Orochimaru made you my equal?"

I slashed, catching his kunai on the hilt and delivered a vicious kick to the stomach.

"No," I responded. "I was your equal well before that!"

Itachi caught my kick with one of his own and retaliated by dropping his kunai and catching my wrist in a single motion, before my blade could strike. Then, he spun and threw me bodily into the air, sending me smacking into the water like a skipping stone before I regained my feet twenty feet away.

"And yet," that cold voice continued speaking from all around me, as my brother's lips moved, "you are still weaker than me."

I flung myself forward once more, but this time, instead of trying to strike Itachi with the still-singing blades in my hands, a few feet away, I stabbed my Kusanagi downwards, sending a current of lightning lancing through the water to Itachi's feet, while flinging the other blade at his head.

"Still strong enough," I growled back. "To kill you!"

Itachi leapt over the current of lightning and lashed out with a kick, catching the sword I had thrown at him on the flat side of the blade, sending it spinning off into the distance.

I didn't stop moving forward, simply tearing the other blade out of the water as I continued sprinting forward, a single motion calling a kunai to my now-empty other hand.

And then, as he landed, Itachi blocked my sword with his kunai, and caught my knife-holding hand with his own.

We were locked once more, the image in the genjutsu world now mirroring reality.

"You cannot defeat me, Sasuke," the words were nothing more than a murmur, though I felt a sense of profound disappointment leaking from them. "Not when you do not have the same eyes as I do."

I strained, pushing against his grip with all my might as I tried to stab him, to place his mind under my control for even just an instant.

"I will not be like you!" I responded furiously, "I won't take the easy way out to get power like you did!"

And just like that I was suddenly snapped back into the real world, Itachi breaking eye contact as Suigetsu and Juugo simultaneously tried to pulverize and dismember my brother while he stood locked in combat with me.

Itachi once again reacted with complete fluidity, kicking me in the stomach, using the momentum to propel himself into the air upside down, and dropping the sword he had taken from me to the earth.

His hands flickering into seals which even I could only barely make out with my sharingan as he hung suspended there, a massive, armored fist approaching his stomach as a blade moved for his neck.

And he blew a massive gout of fire, directly into Suigetsu and Juugo's faces.

Suigetsu's entire upper body was vaporized almost instantly as he instinctively turned his body into water in the face of the attack.

Juugo, on the other hand, screamed in pain as the fire engulfed him, and lost almost all of his momentum against the opposing force. Itachi landed in an elegant handstand and kicked the large man in the stomach, sending him flying into a wall with a sick crunch.

There were three feet between us.

I sheathed my sword and dove forward, pulling the one Itachi had dropped out of the ground and driving for his back.

It went right through him, piercing through his spine, his stomach, and coming out his front without a hint of resistance.

Itachi fell, and dissolved into a murder of crows which cawed, snapped and battered at me as they swirled away into the sky. At the edge of the street, Itachi stood once more, unharmed.

I blinked for a moment. Genjutsu? But…

I narrowed my eyes. No. Not a genjutsu. He had done a last-second replacement with a Karasu Bunshin to dodge my attack. A bit of psychological warfare, designed to make his opponent think they were under genjutsu, even when they were not.

I clenched my teeth. My brother was a slippery one.

But this time, reason asserted itself. I didn't charge at him, or even attempt to strike. Juugo and Suigetsu lay knocked out in a corner, both of them having been severely weakened by Itachi's fireball. Karin remained hidden, scanning Itachi's chakra for any hint of weakness.

And Itachi and I stood facing each other, both unmoving. I held my blade backhanded in front of me, and Itachi had a kunai out. The two of us looked at each other, unmoving, observing each other's reactions.

"You… have become strong, Sasuke," he whispered after a moment of silence as he continued to stare at me.

I narrowed my eyes at that, but ignored the statement. "Where is your original?" I asked him.

Itachi, or rather, the _clone_ of Itachi, raised his eyebrow. "You figured it out?"

"Of course." At his questioning look, I shrugged and continued. There was no harm in telling him. "If you were the original, then Kisame would also be here."

And he probably would have used his Mangekyou techniques. I didn't mention that, though.

Itachi inclined his head ever-so-slightly at my deduction.

I didn't even bother to react. "Where is he?" I asked again.

The clone responded with a significant nod to where Karin was still hiding, up on the rooftop, having not moved since the beginning of the battle. "You do not need me to inform you."

I glared at him. So he had even figured that out.

Then, without any warning or ceremony, the clone simply formed a seal and vanished in a shunshin.

I didn't bother to try and stop him.

XXX

"Man, you really took a beating, ~nya."

I turned to the two small figures that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the corner of my eye.

"Hello Denka, Hina." I nodded at both as I addressed them. "It's been a while."

"Should ya really be worryin' about us, ~nya?" Denka asked again. His voice was dry, like sandpaper, with an odd monotonic undercurrent mixed in with the lilting tones which sounded out of place on such a small creature.

"Your friends are hurt, ~nya!" Hina, the second, white cat asked me. Unlike Denka, her voice was more emotive and high-pitched, and marked her as obviously female.

I glanced over at the two Itachi had injured, noting their still heaving chests, even if half of Suigetsu's body had been vaporized, and Juugo was covered with burns across the parts of his body that were not transformed.

"They'll be fine," I said calmly. "But I would appreciate it if you could escort us to somewhere where we can recover before meeting with Nekobaa."

"D'you have a gift for us, ~nya?" Hina asked expectantly. I reached into my tool pouch and extracted a bottle of matatabi.

In a flash, Denka had grabbed it from my hand. "Thanks for the donation! Follow us, ~nya."

XXX

"Dammit, Sasuke…" Suigetsu groaned. Denka and Hina had provided us with a small, sparsely-furnished room after leading us off, and was lying on the beds, though at this point, he had already reconstituted most of his mass after drinking dozens of bottles of water. "_That's_ the guy you were after? He's completely ridiculous!"

Juugo, on the other bed, stared impassively at the ceiling, his wounds slowly, but noticeably closing up as he remained still.

I was actually surprised when he spoke.

"I must agree, Sasuke. That man was far too strong for us to defeat."

I heard Karin's worried voice from behind me. "Sasuke…"

I glanced around the room. All three of them were obviously worried in their own ways.

"I survived," I said at last.

"Survived?" Sugetsu spluttered. "_Survived_? Sasuke, he kicked your ass!"

I stared at him, not a hint of emotion crossing my face. "I'm still going after him. If you don't want to come, then that's your choice."

Karin grabbed my arm. "Sasuke, don't be reckless!"

I tore away my hand from her, and gave them all a hard look. "This is not up for debate. Now choose. Will you leave or stay?"

There was a silence that stretched out long enough that I started getting scared that they actually _would_ back out.

Then Karin sighed. "I'll go with you," she grudgingly acquiesced. "If I'm not around, you'd get yourself killed in a day."

I almost cracked a smile at that. It was true, after all.

Juugo was next. "I'll follow you, Sasuke, no matter where you go. You know that already."

Suigetsu was just looking between them as if they were crazy, then finally let out an exasperated breath. "Haaa… I s'pose I can stick with you a bit longer, Sasuke." I raised a questioning eyebrow, and he continued. "Itachi's gonna have to die anyways if I'm gonna get Kisame-senpai's sword. Might as well throw my lot with you," he grumbled.

I felt my lips twitch at the edges for just an instant, then took another look at Suigetsu and Juugo. Both of them were already fully healed, and were already starting to rise, which wasn't surprising given their respective skills.

I turned to Karin. "That might have just been a clone we fought, but it was still made of Itachi's chakra. Can you find the original?"

Karin sighed, then nodded.

"Well then," I murmured, turning to leave the small room. "Let's go."

XXX

Of course, before going after Itachi, we first had to replenish our dwindling supplies. Denka and Hina led us to a large chamber, and we bought what we needed.

"My thanks. I am indebted to you, Nekobaa." I murmured as I began wrapping up the supplies I had received from her into a cloth roll.

The old woman was surrounded by cats of various breeds and sizes, and was smoking a pipe emitting a fragrant scent. Her long hair was held back by a hairband with animal-ear shaped protrusions at the top.

She sighed. "It's been years since I last saw you, and you're still in such a hurry."

I held up a small bottle of ink that I had received from her, inspecting it carefully. "Yeah. I have something important to take care of. My apologies."

Behind me, Karin was standing silently, observing the room while a small yellow kitten nipped at her heels.

Suigetsu was playing happily with some larger cats in the corner of the room. I couldn't see him, but it was probably a rather amusing picture.

On the other hand, Juugo was being outfitted for a shirt by Nekobaa's granddaughter, Tamaki, a pretty girl with long brown hair.

I ignored them, and continued watching Nekobaa. "Just as I thought," she said sadly. "You're going after Itachi."

I gave her a bitter smile as I finished rolling up the cloth and tying the ribbon around it. "Yes."

She took another puff on her pipe. "I've known both of you since you were just children, but I never expected things to turn out this way" she reflected. "You two are the only members left of the Uchiha clan, and now you'll be fighting to the death."

I laid out some money for her, cutting her off. "We should get going. Once again, my thanks." She stared at me and let out another deep sigh, and I allowed myself to reflect for a moment, before getting up. Before I could, though, Tamaki called out to us.

"Hey Granny! Is there anything that can fit him?" she asked, looking at Juugo, the still-shirtless giant as impassive as ever.

"Try that box over there!" she shouted back.

"None of them fit!" the granddaughter responded.

Nekobaa rolled her eyes. "Then just wrap him up in that curtain!" she said, obviously annoyed. "Goodness, I'm not running a clothing store here!"

Tamaki looked scandalized. "Granny! You shouldn't treat paying customers like that!"

Juugo wordlessly reached up and tore the curtain down as I finally stood up, wrapping himself in it, then gave a grunt of approval.

"Thank you once more, Nekobaa, Tamaki," I said, bowing to each in turn and giving the younger woman a small smile.

Tamaki blushed crimson.

Karin tried to pinch me, but missed as I took a step back, turned around, and started for the exit.

"Let's go," I said, trying to ignore the two red-faced girls behind me.

But as I reached the door, Nekobaa spoke once more, and I stopped in my tracks.

"Sasuke," she said quietly. "Revenge will not bring you happiness."

I remained still for another, eternal instant, then craned my neck back to look at her serious face. "I am not doing this for revenge."

She studied my face, and let out a breath. "Nonetheless, you shouldn't kill Itachi. You will regret it."

I stood there for one eternal moment, eyes closed, contemplating. I remembered my brother, I remembered his kind smile, his gentle voice, telling me that we were brothers, telling me that he would always be there for me.

And then, I remembered him standing over my parents' corpses, telling me that I was weak, telling me to fear and hate him.

But above all that, I remembered what he had shown me, the day he returned to the village. The images of Naruto and Sakura, of him killing them, over and over again. Disemboweling, dismembering, decapitating, incinerating, smashing…

Finally, I whispered the only thing I could.

"I am sorry."

And I walked out.

I didn't look back.

**Glossary**:

Matatabi - Silver Vine - A type of herb which grows in the mountainous regions of China and Japan that has a very similar effect to catnip when cats eat and sniff it.

And now you know where the Nibi got its name from.


	8. The Liar's Guide to Art Criticism

Chapter 8: The Liar's Guide to Art Criticism

"Hey, Sasuke," Suigetsu asked as we leapt through the trees. "I know you're probably jumping with joy on the inside at this chance to kill your brother, but don't you think we're moving a bit too fast?"

I had been maintaining a near-breakneck pace all morning long as we advanced towards Itachi's position, Karin in the lead. Even I was beginning to feel an ache in my legs at the speed, but plowed on regardless.

Juugo didn't even look slightly winded, but given the man's ridiculous stamina, that wasn't surprising.

Karin, however, looked fine too, and that most certainly was. Sometimes, it felt like she had almost as much energy as Naruto did. A disturbing thought, to say the least, to think that I'd have to deal with _two_ hyperactive, obsessive idiots for the rest of my life.

"No," I responded to Suigetsu's question. I didn't elaborate.

Suigetsu remained silent at first, then seeing the lack of a forthcoming answer, spoke again. This time, I could almost hear the frown in his voice. "C'mon, Sasuke. Exhausting yourself before you get to him won't help anyone."

"That's not why," I responded, again not looking back.

Another moment of silence.

"Then tell me," Suigetsu said, the curiosity evident through his panting.

I glanced back, and saw an incredible amount of sweat pouring down Suigetsu's face. He looked like he had partially transformed into water, and if I didn't know better, I would have thought he had. "Itachi knew that I had killed Orochimaru," I said calmly. "That means that the rumors of his death have probably spread all across the continent now."

"So?" Suigetsu asked.

"So," I continued, voice dry. "That means that there's a high chance that _Konoha_ knows about it too at this point, which means that they've probably already dispatched a retrieval team."

And, from my knowledge of Tsunade, I had a good idea of just who was going to be on that team.

I banished that thought with a shake of my head. There was no point in thinking about _them_ right now.

Suigetsu was silent.

"Keep moving," I said, and we continued leaping through the trees.

XXX

By the time we stopped, the Karin and Suigetsu were openly panting. Juugo and I were simply breathing somewhat hard.

I turned to look at my team.

"Let's rest here for a bit before continuing."

Karin and Suigetsu did not so much sit as collapse to the ground, both of them barely able to move from where they lay. Juugo simply lowered himself next to a larger tree, resting against it.

I leaned back against another next to his, waiting for my harsh breaths to subside before retrieving a soldier pill and eating it.

"Sasuke." I glanced up as Juugo addressed me, just audible enough that I could hear. Karin and Suigetsu, still panting, didn't seem to notice.

"Yes?"

"I have spoken to the animals about that question you asked."

I felt a small hint of involuntary excitement mixed with fear, but kept my features carefully schooled. Instead, I gave Juugo a small nod to continue.

"Akatsuki is hunting people with special chakra."

"Tch!"

I felt a stab of fear. If Akatsuki was hunting the bijuu…

I shook my head. No. I was jumping to conclusions. All that Juugo had told me was that they were hunting people with special chakra. That didn't mean that they were necessarily going after the bijuu, did it?

_Yeah, just keep telling yourself that,_ a small voice at the back of my mind whispered. I viciously crushed it down with a thought.

I was drawn out of my thoughts by the realization that everyone in the clearing was giving me curious looks.

Schooling my features, I stopped leaning back, and started pacing away from them.

"Sasuke?" Karin ventured. She wasn't breathing hard any longer, but I could see the tired slackness still hanging off her features.

"I need some time to think."

XXX

I paced, alone into the small clearing a few dozen feet away from where the other members of my team were resting, and took a deep breath.

I had assumed, perhaps rightly, that Itachi had targeted Naruto on that day, three years ago, because of his connection to me. I had thought that my brother had wanted to _hurt_ me, to make me suffer.

But what if I had been looking at this the wrong way?

What if it hadn't been Itachi who wanted Naruto, but Akatsuki as a whole?

I shuddered at that. A whole organization of S-Rank missing-nin…

He wouldn't stand a chance.

But this was still baseless speculation. Until I could confirm that Akatsuki was truly targeting the bijuu, there was no point in acting on it.

And none of it changed the fact that Itachi needed to die.

I took a deep breath, my course reaffirmed. Kill Itachi, and if the rest of Akatsuki was a threat, kill them too.

And then, I let it out in a single, long, wheezing gasp. But just before I could return to the rest of my group, I felt something. A tingling in the back of my skull.

I knew that feeling.

Someone was watching me.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I turned to face an area several yards away from where I had come from.

"Come out. Who are you?"

"Ahahahaha!" The laughter was delighted, like a child's, but I wasn't fooled. "So you found me!"

And then, from behind a tree, came a man wearing a black cloak adorned with patterns of red clouds, and a completely ridiculous orange mask.

"That outfit…" I muttered. "You're…"

He spoke deeply, and there would have no doubt been a certain gravity to his tone if he hadn't sounded like a ten-year old child attempting to imitate a serious adult. "So you're Sasuke-kun. You really do look like Itachi-san."

I felt a sudden spike of rage and my eyes narrowed dangerously as my chakra spiked.

The idiot immediately backpedaled, leaving a trail of dust behind him as he hid back behind the tree whose shadow he had emerged from. "Scary!"

And that was when I noticed the massive chakra that was approaching me from the sky at blinding speed. I looked up just in time to see a man with long blonde hair, wearing a mad smile and an Akatsuki cloak swoop down at me, riding on a massive dragon made out of clay.

"Katsu!"

And the world exploded.

XXX

The blonde man laughed.

"Ha! I killed Uchiha Sasuke, un."

"Hahaha! That's Deidara-senpai for you!" the masked idiot responded, laughing with his partner.

The smoke cleared, and the two of them saw me, shielded by the coils of the white cobra I had summoned just a moment before Deidara's blow had struck.

The masked man looked at me, then turned back to his partner. "That's Deidara-senpai for you?"

"Shaddup, Tobi!" the blonde man spat out immediately, incensed.

My summons disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the two Akatsuki members turned back to me.

"Well, that aside, this guy looks pretty strong, doesn't he?" Tobi asked.

Deidara snorted contemptuously. "To think that Orochimaru was beaten by this brat… I can't believe it, un."

I stared, focusing my entire attention upon the two of them, honing my will into the edge of a sword, trying to pierce their beings, to understand their beings.

_What are you after?_

Noticing my scrutiny, Deidara sneered, spreading his arms out mockingly and tilting his head. I noticed a small metal visor over his left eye, hidden by a long bang of hair, but exposed for just that moment..

"Hah! That's a nice glare he's giving us, Tobi."

Tobi didn't move at all, displaying nothing through his body language. "Eh? Are you sure?" He asked, a barely-disguised whine in his voice. "You'll have to apologize to Itachi-san later, you know?"

I felt a cold bubble of rage in my gut at the mention of _his_ name, and I felt my glare intensify. The masked man cowered back, but Deidara returned my look in full force.

Moments ticked by, and it felt like a year had passed in the seconds for which we took in each other's measure.

Finally, I opened my mouth, and spoke.

"Why are you attacking me?"

Deidara was weaker than Itachi. I could already tell that just by feeling his chakra and strength. It didn't make any sense for the organization to send someone like him to protect my brother.

Deidara grinned, and Tobi backed up a few steps.

"Orochimaru was mine! Since you killed him, I'm gonna kill you in return, un!"

I blinked and raised an eyebrow, but…

"Well, in that case, I suppose you can answer a small question that's been nagging at me before I kill you." I smiled at the sudden look of rage on Deidara's face at my casual dismissal of his declaration.

"What is Akatsuki's current objective?" I asked, voice steely and calm.

Both of them froze, unmoving, Deidara regarding me with a look of disdain mixed with cold rage, while Tobi's eye simply scanned, me, suddenly attentive.

To my surprise, it was not Deidara who responded, but Tobi.

"We're going after the bijuu of course! That was what Leader-sama told us to do, after all!" he chirped, his tone suddenly incongruous with the hint of intelligence I had seen in his body language a second earlier.

My heart sank as my fears were confirmed, even as I heard Deidara shout. "Hey, Tobi! Why're you answering his questions?!"

Tobi backed up sheepishly for a moment. "Er, sorry? It's just… I wanted to be polite, so..."

I had no doubt that he was lying. That change in his body language just instants before told me that this man was far more dangerous than he let on. If he had told me that, he had done so for a reason.

Deidara sighed and turned away. "Well, whatever, he'll be dead soon anyways." He turned to look at me, eyes regarding my own coldly, and I saw a flicker of something as he looked at me.

"The sharingan…" he said at last. "Just as I thought, this guy is Itachi's little brother. It's just thanks to his Uchiha blood that he managed to kill Orochimaru, un." He closed his eyes, as if contemplating, and when he opened them, they were filled with a mix of fanatical rage, and cold disdain as he looked at me. "He just confuses his blessed heritage with his own pow-."

I didn't give him a chance to finish the sentence. In a single instant, Orochimaru's sword was in my hand, and slashing through the air. Deidara's eyes widened, but he reacted in an instant, flipping backwards to land on the tree behind him.

But that was fine. He hadn't been my target in the first place.

Without even stopping, Ame-no-Murakumo cut through Tobi, who had been standing behind the blonde man, with as much resistance as a feather pillow. The man collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

"One down," I muttered under my breath, and looked up at Deidara.

"One to go."

But before I could move, before I could strike at Deidara, there was a sound of something shuffling, of cloth moving, behind me.

I turned around, and saw Tobi get to his feet, as if nothing had just happened.

"Hey! What're ya doing, Tobi?" Deidara shouted as if nothing had just happened. "Don't go lowering your guard just because he's a kid, un!"

"Senpai!" There was that false whine again. Looking at the two of them, I suddenly was struck by a terrifying realization.

This man, who I had previously dismissed so casually.

_He_ was the more dangerous member of this pair.

Tobi was waving his hands around, making excuses. I turned, about to deal with him again, but then, I heard a shout.

"Sasuke!" Suigetsu's voice called.

And then, the members of Team Taka emerged from the forest and landed behind me.

"We heard the explosion," Karin explained. "We hurried over as quickly as possible."

"Be careful," I warned the three of them, "these two are Akatsuki."

"What do we do, Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked, face uncharacteristically grim, even as he brandished the Kubikiriboucho.

There was no hesitation in my voice as I responded. "Kill them both."

Suigetsu's eyes flickered to me in shock for an instant, before that was replaced by a sharklike grin. "'Bout time!" he roared, as he flung himself at Deidara, Juugo close behind, his arm half-transformed already.

.I spun to face Tobi, and charged.

The masked man didn't even bother to resist, instead letting out a high-pitched, girlish scream and running away. Instead of bothering to pursue him, I turned again, planting my foot in the ground, and leapt at Deidara behind Juugo and Suigetsu.

And barely had time to react before my companions were knocked back at me by a series of dozens of small explosions, Juugo roaring curses.

The sharingan in my eyes flared, and I _saw_.

Dozens of small, buglike clay sculptures flew through the air at my body. Juugo and Suigetsu had absorbed the majority of the miniature explosives, but there were still several left over, most heading in my direction.

I didn't bother to dodge. Instead I drew back my hand, and sending out a rain of chidori senbon, spearing all of the clay sculptures in midair, some of the needles striking off of others to hit the ones in my blind spots.

However, I lost my momentum as Juugo and Suigetsu's still-flying bodies clipped me midair, sending me tumbling back down, even as dozens of the speared bombs pierced the trees around me.

Deidara raised his hands into a two-fingered seal, and I grit my teeth, already getting ready to leap at him.

"Wait, senpai! Don't 'katsu'! Please don't 'katsu'!"

I saw Tobi, crying piteously from a corner, surrounded by more of the bombs I had knocked away. Deidara grit his teeth, hesitating for just an instant.

It was all I needed. I sprung forward, kicking off of a nearby tree, and flew behind Deidara, ready to strike.

But before I could, the blonde man smirked, and opened his hand, revealing two mouths on his palms. One of them, still chewing, stopped, and expelled one last clay bomb right at me.

I didn't have time to dodge, so I did the only thing I could and braced myself, crossing my arms in front of me.

The bomb exploded, sending both me and Deidara flying. I flipped, kicking off of the branch of a nearby tree, and landed in the middle of the clearing, Juugo and Suigetsu just getting up behind me.

Tobi was crying comically. "He was a strict senpai, but a good one! Deidara-senpai, I'll never forget about-"

Deidara flipped out of the trees, sliding backwards as his feet hit the ground. "Shaddup, Tobi!"

The masked man looked up. "Oh, you're alive."

I stared at both of them coldly, analytically for just a moment, then a voice rang out from the trees.

Karin's voice.

"Sasuke, he's using doton chakra to power his explosives!"

I smirked, gripping the sword in both hands as I readied myself to charge.

Then Deidara held his open palms out towards me, the hands in the centers of both opening to each let out a stream of clay, an unnatural, tottering lump at the end of each.

The clay-beasts ran at me, slow and plodding.

"Children's games?" I asked drily. "I don't have time for this."

I charged, Juugo and Suigetsu right behind, and slashed out at the first clay-creature, expecting the soft white material to part easily before Ame-no-Murakumo's edge.

I was surprised when, instead of cutting it in half, the blade was embedded in its body, and refused to come free.

Before I could figure out to remove it, the creature lashed out, an incredibly fast blow that belied its previous slowness.

I bent like a willow in the wind, moving away from the blow, just as Juugo and Suigetsu struck at the other one. Unlike my own sword, the Kubikiriboucho didn't stop halfway through the monster, the sheer inertia of the blade slicing the entire thing right in half.

However, even then, the still-connected half of the creature still prepared to counterstrike.

Suigetsu's face twisted into a snarl, but before I even had a chance to worry, Juugo was there, hands transformed into massive chakra cannons.

"Hahahaha! Die!"

The blast of energy that emerged from Juugo's hand utterly obliterated both halves of the clay creature, pulverizing it back into sand.

I saw Deidara bite his lip, even as I dodged around a dozen blows from my own misshapen opponent, striking back with a fluid series of punches and kicks.

But even that was ineffective. The creature simply bent with the blows, then reformed into its original shape right after I struck.

This wasn't working.

_What was it that Karin said? It's powered with doton chakra…_

And so, the next time I dodged, instead of striking with my bare fist, I drew my other sword, letting lightning sheathe the blade, and swung at the creature again.

This time, there was a smooth retort, almost as smooth as when I had struck Tobi, and the beast was sliced cleanly in half. I grinned, but my rush of satisfaction was short-lived as I saw the line of clay that was still connected from Deidara's arm to the half of the remaining clay beast pulse and split, connecting to the severed half.

"Tch!"

Juugo and Suigetsu were halfway to Deidara, but I saw that the beast they had destroyed was already regenerating along the line from the man's other palm, standing up to bar their path once more.

I spun, pivoted and cut, repeatedly slicing at the clay beast, dividing it again and again, then grabbed the still-embedded Ame-no-Murakumo by the hilt and pulled it free.

Two swords in hand, I continued whirling and dancing, noticing Suigetsu and Juugo now similarly engaged once more, battling only a few feet from the bomber himself.

"Sasuke! He can't move while using that jutsu!" Karin called out.

I understood immediately. Deidara himself was the technique's weakness.

I was still dancing, the clay beasts around me trying to strike at me, but the next time I had to dodge, instead of pivoting left or right, I leapt straight up, spinning in midair, and flung my Kusanagi straight at the blonde man.

Deidara's eyes widened, and he leapt aside, Tobi following him while screaming just an instant later. The clay puppet underneath me, poised to strike, suddenly giving a jerk and stopping its movement as my sword hit the dirt.

I noted that the one Juugo and Suigetsu were engaged with did the same, an opportunity the two of them did not miss, immediately disengaging and leaping after the blonde man.

Deidara was not to be taken off-guard, though. He raised his hand up, severing the two thin lines of clay hanging from the mouths in his palms and formed a single hand seal. His expression was wild and passionate.

"Katsu!"

The clay beasts under me exploded, flinging me through the air as I flipped, using their force to place myself in a controlled spin, landing on my feet.

A few feet away, I saw Juugo slowly getting back to his feet, still screaming with laughter despite the burns covering his body. Suigetsu, on the other hand, was reforming from a puddle of water, no doubt having been blown apart from the ones right behind him.

I leapt forward to their position and drew my Kusanagi out of the ground, sheathing it behind me, keeping Ame-no-Murakumo in hand and resting it on my shoulder.

"Hey, buddy!" Suigetsu called out to the artist and his companion. "Think you could tone that down? I don't like getting blown up!"

"Ha!" Deidara cried out, his palms already expelling his next creation. "You just can't appreciate my art, un!"

"Your art?" Suigetsu responded. "What sorta messed up art is that? Pop?"

A massive explosion of smoke expanded around Deidara, and when it cleared, a massive clay dragon had materialized behind him.

"Ah!" Tobi cried out. "Deidara-senpai's clay dragon! Does that mean…?" I could _taste_ the excitement in his voice.

"Yeah Tobi, we're gonna use _that_!"

The massive clay dragon behind him convulsed, opening its mouth, and expelled a massive group of clay bombs.

But I had more immediate concerns. That dragon had wings, and I remembered how the man had ambushed me by flying from above atop a winged clay beast.

"Juugo!" I snapped.

The man charged. One moment, he was next to me, and the next, he was ten feet away. I followed, moving after him immediately, charging as fast as I could. I heard Suigetsu moving after us just a moment later.

We sprinted across the ground, rapidly closing the distance with Deidara, but before we could reach him, the man grinned, and raised his hand.

Once again, the dragon's mouth opened, but this time, it expelled something else.

Three smaller dragons, each of them moving straight at us.

We scattered immediately, spreading apart so that there was enough distance between us to prevent the others from being struck if an explosion was set off in our vicinity.

Juugo punched at the one approaching him, attempting to power straight through.

Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect, and instead, the explosion flung the almost-completely inhuman-looking boy backwards, sending him tumbling backwards even as mad laughter continued to pour from his lips.

Suigetsu, on the other hand, liquefied, allowing the dragon to pass through his body as he continued moving forward. However, just as it passed into his body, the bomb went off with a stunning explosion, scattering the Hozuki's body into a shower of water.

And so, instead of trying to hit mine, I dodged, simply tilting my head slightly to allow the bomb to pass overhead. However, after passing me, I sensed the clay dragon fly up and turn around in midair, tracking me.

Just as the bomb was about to strike my legs, I leapt straight up, and stabbed downwards, Ame-no-Murakumo coated in lightning chakra, and pinned it to the ground. I released the blade before I could get dragged along.

And as I reached Deidara, I leapt straight up, towards the dragon that had just taken flight, noting absently that Tobi had disappeared. Already, Deidara was out of physical range, so I flung out my hand, two fingers extended.

_Chidori Eisou!_

A spear of lightning flew forth from my fingers, but missed the dragon by inches as it retreated out of range of my attack.

With a click of my tongue, I released the jutsu, allowing the lightning to fizzle out.

_Now he knows my maximum range_.

I glanced up. Deidara was hovering just outside of my maximum range, and the dragon's mouth was opening again, no doubt in preparation for another attack.

Not wasting a single moment, I brought up both hands and flashed through a set of seals.

_Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!_

I spat out six fireballs, all of which spiralled into the air in a random pattern, converging on Deidara's position.

I saw the man bite his lip, then break off his attack, retreating back out of range from me.

I spun, sprinting backwards and ripping the Ame-no-Murakumo out of the now-inert bomb in the ground as I did so.

Spinning around, I saw Juugo and Suigetsu regrouping a few feet away, and spun to move towards them.

The first two steps in that direction were perfectly mundane.

On the third, I stepped in something soft and squishy, and my foot started sinking into the ground.

"Sasuke look out!" Karin cried.

I looked down and noted the dirt around my foot had suddenly turned to clay.

"Katsu!"

_Oh shi-_

The ground exploded.

XXX

"Hahahaha! This time I definitely got him!" Deidara cried out. "Good work Tobi!"

The masked man popped out of the ground a few feet behind me, and raised his thumbs towards the sky. "Uchiha Sasuke was no problem for senpai!"

It was then that I flipped out of the woods and landed back in front of Juugo and Suigetsu. Deidara and Tobi glanced at me, then at the place where I had been, a charred log now decorating the forest floor.

Tobi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Er… No… problem for senpai?"

"Shaddup!" the mad artist returned, obvious annoyance in his voice, probably due to how difficult I was proving to kill.

"Sasuke!" Karin called out from the woods. "That masked guy has littered the entire area with mines."

I blinked, then had to bite back a sigh of annoyance as I noted that Karin was correct. The ground was completely saturated with those clay mines Deidara had expelled just a minute ago from that clay dragon.

I looked up at Deidara, flying above us on that massive dragon of his, and looked down at the ground.

Deidara laughed. "That's right! You're trapped! This is the ultimate expression of my art! If you move, you'll hit the mines Tobi has hidden all around the area, and if you don't…" The dragon opened its mouth, revealing a dozen smaller versions of itself within. "You'll be at the center of my art anyways!"

"Art this, art that!" Suigetsu called out in response. "Couldn't ya just keep it in a gallery or something?"

Deidara smiled widely, the hint of madness in that expression lending it a terrible sort of inevitability.

"Gallery? Art is not something that can be caged up, left to rot in some musty old building! Art is expression, the very expression of my being and anger! It's a practical field! Paintings, sculpture, puppetry… I reject all of these things, as pathetic imitations, and pursue the one true mastery!"

I bit my lip, feeling my shoulder pulse as I thought of the cursed seal.

Would I have to use it? Would I be forced to waste some of the precious remaining chakra within the mark to take out this clown?

"True art lies in the instant that something is destroyed!" the flying madman continued ranting, oblivious, or perhaps, uncaring of my desperate thoughts. "Art is the celebration of finality, the splendor of the temporary! Nothing is superior to the experience of the ending!" His voice was almost a fanatical scream at this point. "Art is supreme among all things! And my art-"

But what else was there? How else could I gather the force to-

I looked at the minefield around us. I could see all of the places where the mines were hidden, my sharingan showing me the color of the chakra in the ground. I could feel it too. Volatile, angry, bursting for release.

I suddenly had a very stupid idea.

However, before I could complete the half-formed thought in the corner of my mind, I ran out of time.

"-is an explosion!"

I saw the dozen projectiles flashing through the air, down at the three of us, heard Karin's scream of fear as we faced our inevitable doom. I began flashing through handseals, preparing the first jutsu I had ever learned, knowing it wouldn't be enough even as I did.

_Katon: Goukakyuu-_

And then, before I could expel the chakra, Juugo was there, his hands together, interlocked, his carapace twisting, building, layering into a massive, flat structure that stood between me and Suigetsu and the bombs.

Was that a shield? How could Juugo know to protect us even now, when his madness was running out of control? How could he save his? His body was completely transformed. He shouldn't have had the mental capacity left to save anything!

But even then, Juugo fought to protect us, the carapace growing wider, thicker, larger, his legs growing, anchoring themselves into the ground..

The first of the explosions rocked Juugo's entire body, a shudder running through the man, like he was a tree being struck by an axe.

The second struck, and Juugo nearly buckled, but then, stood up straight once more, his joints now locked into place by another layer of flesh.

Another.

Juugo roared in agony, the explosions taking their toll on him. I saw cracks start to run through the shield.

Four more.

But even then, the man didn't give in. He fought, gritting his teeth, refusing to let even a single bomb get through to me and Suigetsu. Holes were appearing in his flesh, his entire body seeming like it was falling to pieces.

The last six struck as one, ripping Juugo out of the ground and off of his feet. With a great cry, he was thrown clear of the minefield, smacking into one of the trees at the edge of the clearing with a meaty thump, and sliding down to the ground, unmoving, as his transformation receded.

That snapped me out of my stunned reverie. I looked Suigetsu in the eye, catching him in a minor genjutsu as I did, relaying my plan to him. A moment later, the boy gave a near-imperceptible nod, acknowledging me.

I looked up at Deidara, already preparing his next attack, and unsealed two Fuuma Shuriken from my pouch.

With a single, clean motion, I flung them straight at him.

Deidara laughed, and the bird moved backwards in midair, dodging the two weapons with room to spare.

"Ha! Did you actually think-"

I didn't pay attention to his gloating, instead sprinting, as fast as I could at the patch of grass right underneath Deidara, dodging and weaving around every single mine near me as I did.

As I reached the area, I leapt straight up, drawing my sword with one hand, and flung the blade downwards, point-first.

The sword pierced the ground, sinking in like a knife into flesh.

The ground began to expand, the power of the mine hidden underneath beginning its release.

And then, I landed right on the hilt of the sword, just as the clay mine exploded, using the force of the blast to propel myself straight upwards.

I shot up like a rocket, hand already crackling with energy as I approached Deidara, seeing his eyes widen.

The spear of lightning in my hand skewered the right wing of the clay sculpture Deidara was still perched upon, and cut it off.

Deidara's eyes widened suddenly, and he moved immediately to escape.

That was when I revealed the two gleaming strands of ninja wire trailing from my hand, still attached to the two fuuma shuriken I had thrown earlier, and pulled.

The blades flew, and embedded themselves in Deidara's arms, pinning him back into his own mount, sending him spiraling down into his own minefield.

"Your art!" I cried out, adrenaline and pure exhilaration overwhelming me, "Is an explosion!"

The entire minefield went off with a single, deafening blast.

I was just about to congratulate myself when I felt a sudden spike of chakra, and Deidara swooped on top of a massive bird out of the plume of smoke from the explosion, right underneath me, his arms still bleeding as his Akatsuki cloak, probably ripped off from the force of the blast, fluttered away in the wind.

How had he gotten out of _that_? I knew that some people were hard to kill, but seriously!

However, as I flew down, I saw Suigetsu grinning all the way down on the ground, the sharingan enhancing my vision to the point where I could see the individual wrinkles on his face, even forty feet away.

And then, a massive water dragon, formed from the Hozuki's own body, spiraled up from the ground, straight at Deidara.

The man swerved aside, barely maintaining his balance on his hastily-formed mount, and the water dragon swerved in midair as well.

Heading straight towards me.

I grinned as the technique ended right in front of me, and I saw the gift Suigetsu had concealed within.

Reaching out, I grasped the hilt of the Kubikiriboucho, and _flew_ straight down at Deidara, who was still looking at the source of the previous attack.

I streamlined my body, willing myself to move faster, to strike with as much force as possible.

The whistling of the wind must have alerted Deidara, since he started to look up, eyes widening in surprise.

His leg muscles tensed, and I could see the sharingan's prediction. Deidara was about to jump left.

Unfortunately, I couldn't readjust my course at this point, so I instead willed myself to move even faster.

Deidara managed to get his main body out of the way just in time, but even he was not fast enough to dodge completely.

With the sharp sound of metal biting through flesh, the artist's right arm was severed at the elbow, flying off into the distance, the entire bird following soon after in two pieces.

Seeing the ground just a couple of feet away from me now, I shot out my left hand towards a copse of trees.

_Sen'eijashu_

Dozens of snakes shot out from under my sleeve, wrapping around a nearby tree, pulling me towards it to land on one of its branches.

To his credit Deidara just seemed to grit his teeth and look annoyed as he landed firmly on his feet, his arm splattering into the dust a few feet away.

But then, he turned up to me, and there was a look of pure, undisguised hatred on his face as he waved his useless limb around.

"The same arm that Kakashi took off! The hell is wrong with you sharingan-users?"

I raised my eyebrows and gave him a maddening smirk, trying to goad him further. However, it was Suigetsu who responded for me.

"Like teacher, like student?" He grinned from behind the artist.

Deidara spun, looking between both me and Suigetsu, surrounded, out of options as he noticed Tobi cowering in a corner of the clearing, still keeping up his idiot act.

Then he did what was possibly the worst thing he could in that situation.

He started laughing and laughing and laughing.

He did that for several seconds, and Suigetsu and I watched on, frozen.

Then he looked down, a wide smile splitting his face.

"So… you defused the first act! Let's see how you deal with act two!"

"Oh come on!" Suigetsu called. "First pop, now theater? Are you some sorta renaissance man?"

But any more comments from the two of us were cut off when Deidara opened his mouth and started shoveling clay into it, chewing and chewing it until it was a fine paste within.

I saw Tobi run away screaming from the corner of my eye.

Then, he expelled it all, and as it hit the ground, the clay started to grow and grow, taking on vaguely human characteristics as it continued to bloat.

And when it was finally over twenty feet tall, I saw what it was.

A replica of Deidara, still wearing his Akatsuki cloak.

It grew, further and further and further, even after Deidara finished expelling clay, and took a single step forward.

I knew that if I let it finish its growth, the explosion when it went off would kill all of us, including the still-unconscious Juugo, lying next to the tree at the end of the clearing.

And that was only if it was a traditional bomb. This weapon was not even that much. I could sense millions upon millions of tiny, microscopic floating particles of Deidara's chakra within it, multiplying, expanding.

Small enough to be breathed.

Small enough to be swallowed.

If this technique went off, I knew that Juugo, still lying unconscious at the edge of the clearing, would die.

And so, I did the only thing I could.

I buried the Kubikiriboucho into the ground in front of me and started flashing through the seals, aiming straight upwards as the clay monster continued to grow.

_Katon: Gouryuuka no Jutsu!_

Fire dragons leapt from my mouth into the sky, shattering the clouds, raising further heat from the ground.

Forming stormclouds.

I vaguely noted Suigetsu trying to strike Deidara with his bare hands from the corner of my eye, and saw the artist dodge around two blows, his remaining hand shooting out as he did so, a small spider clutched within.

Suigetsu's body was blown into a shower of water, and unmolested, Deidara's hand on his palm spat out a massive bird which he immediately leapt onto, flying into the air.

The sky began to drizzle. A minor rainstorm.

But I could work with that.

I continued spitting fire dragons into the sky, and the thunderstorm grew and grew and grew.

And the clay statue that Deidara had made of himself grew as well, expanding to greater and greater girth as it stepped forward.

And then, just as it seemed that it could not expand any more without bursting, just as the microscopic explosives were about to be released, I raised my hand up to the sky.

"Kirin," I whispered, watching the massive, screaming lightning beast form from the stormclouds, watching as Deidara looked up, seeing him suddenly freeze as he saw what I had wrought.

And then, brought my hand down.

The clay Deidara did not explode so much as it was crushed, popped into the ground, the massive blast of lightning completely neutralizing every single one of the tiny explosives within.

There was a rush of air, and Suigetsu and I were nearly blown backwards, smashing into the trees as the shockwave from the blast rippled outwards, only barely bracing ourselves in time.

There was a crash as Deidara struck the ground, the sheer volume of lightning in the air no doubt completely neutralizing the chakra within his flying mount.

When the dust kicked up by the explosion cleared, a massive crater was all that was left of Deidara's bomb.

XXX

I shambled forward, sharingan deactivated. Suigetsu lay in the dirt behind me, utterly exhausted and unable to even move after resisting the explosion.

The adrenaline had worn off at this point, and I felt terribly, cripplingly tired. The leg I had used to launch myself off of Deidara's explosive was torn and bleeding, and my hands were burned from a myriad of barely-dodged attack.

Luckily, Tobi was gone. I wasn't certain that I would have been able to defeat him in my current state if he had stayed behind.

Luckily, there was only one more opponent to deal with, one in even worse a state than I was in.

I kept moving, forward and forward, to where Deidara lay under his bird mount, slowly rising to his own feet.

He panted as he stood, just as exhausted as I was.

"How dare you…" he snarled, exhaustion draining the volume, but not the venom from his tone. "How dare you taint my art in such a manner!"

I smiled, still moving, kunai in hand, ready to end him. "You didn't like… _my_ art?" I asked, trying to force a hint of sarcastic mockery into my tone.

It came out just sounding tired.

His face twisted, further fury clouding his features.

"You Uchiha…" he whispered, deadly calm infusing his voice. "All so arrogant, looking down at the rest of us. I'll show you! I'll show all of you!"

He ripped apart the left side of his shirt with his remaining arm, the fabric tearing easily even though he was weakened from exhaustion and blood loss.

The motion revealed another, fourth mouth in his chest, this one, unlike the others, stitched shut.

Deidara grabbed the end of the stitch, and tore it out, not paying attention to the splurt of blood from where the thread was ripped out of his chest.

I looked on calmly, too tired to be angry or passionate any longer, still stepping forward, step after step.

"You're out of chakra now!" Deidara screamed at me. "So there's no way you can avoid this next attack!"

He reached into his pouch, stuffing the last bits of clay into the massive, bleeding mouth on his chest.

"The explosion from this clay will destroy this entire forest for ten miles around us! Nothing can escape! You and your team will die!"

I ignored him, the now-chewing chest-mouth a mere afterthought in my mind. Deidara was all that mattered.

I raised my hand to point at him, two fingers extended.

"I've pursued art all of my life!" he screamed. "And now, I will become the perfect art! Art is supreme amongst all things! And my art is an expl-"

A lance of lightning from the tip of my outstretched fingers pierced the hunk of clay in Deidara's chest, and a shock of electricity ran through the man's entire body, neutralizing every bit of the explosive chakra he had been gathering.

Deidara blinked, and looked down at the lightning blade in his chest, a puzzled expression on his face, as if he couldn't understand what had just happened.

I jerked my hand. Deidara gave a gasp and froze up, blood dribbling up into his mouth and down his cheeks, now a sort of twisted mirror to the still-bleeding one on his chest.

"H-how?" he whispered as I stopped, now almost face-to-face with him, looking into his eyes. "You were out of chakra."

There was a profound, pathetic sort of curiosity in that voice.

I allowed the sharingan to swirl back into my eyes for just an instant, seeing his own widen in comprehension.

Then I leaned over, whispering two words into his ear.

"I lied." Through my actions, if not my words.

Deidara gave a hack, a cough, then fell backwards, completely still, blood still dribbling from his mouth and chest.

He did not rise again.

**Jutsu Glossary:**

Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu - Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Technique: User expels multiple fireballs from his mouth, each of which is still controlled by him until they strike the target.

Sen'eijashu - Hidden Shadow Snake Hands: Technique that allows the user to eject snakes from their arms or sleeves.

**A/N:** At this point, I am firmly convinced that Deidara's fighting style was never meant to be transcribed into text.

Well, either way, I hope you enjoyed the fight. It got a bit close to canon at some points, but I think I managed to distinguish it significantly enough to keep it interesting.

Anyways, on my profile, I promised that somewhere in this fanfic, I would give a logical and canon-compliant explanation for the Great Snake Escape. Unfortunately, the way this fight evolved forced me to… not do that.

So I will compromise.

If anyone wants to know my explanation, just leave a review saying so, and I'll get back to you. I'll also get to posting a version of said explanation on my profile, so anyone can read it, though that might take some time.

Anyways, thanks, and until next time.


	9. Itachi Gaiden

Interlude I: Itachi Gaiden

"Deidara is dead, and Tobi is missing," the holographic figure, like all of the others in the chamber, shimmered in the dim light. "According to our reports, Uchiha Sasuke is responsible."

I felt no need to react to this declaration. Sasuke's victory had always been a foregone conclusion in the event that Deidara was foolish enough to challenge him.

Which, it seemed, he had been.

I gave the dead man no more thought than I had when he was still alive. No doubt, he had attempted to use Sasuke as a test-bed for a strategy that he had intended to one day employ against me, and found that he had bitten off far more than he could chew.

Kisame, standing next to me, grinned, exposing his shark-like teeth.

"Heh! So that idiot's dead too. I wish I coulda seen it."

Pain's fury was sudden and focused, as intense as the heat of a thousand suns. "Deidara was a comrade, no matter how you felt about him," he whispered, voice deadly quiet. "Do not insult his memory."

While any other member of Akatsuki would have at least brought up their guard at that, Kisame remained as callously nonchalant as always.

"My deepest apologies," he said in the most insincere tone possible. "I'll make sure to avoid insulting our dear, departed comrade ever again."

I had to hold back a snort of laughter at that. Kisame would no doubt start slandering Deidara behind Pain's back as soon as this meeting was over.

Our Leader, however, did not know that, and simply fixed Kisame with one last glare before turning away. "See that you do."

However, before he could continue, he was interrupted.

"What shall we do about Uchiha Sasuke?" Konan whispered, a sibilant, empty tone.

"Isn't that obvious?" White Zetsu asked.

"**Itachi created the problem, so he will take care of it,**" his other half completed the statement.

The Leader sighed before turning the full force of his gaze over to me.

"It is as they say, Itachi. Will you be able to attend to your brother?"

I carefully schooled my features, and constructed an artfully obsequious bow. "Of course. I shall endeavour to do so to satisfaction."

Of course, to _whose_ satisfaction, exactly, was something I very carefully left out.

Pain, however, was obviously not fooled. He looked at me, close, blank. I kept my emotions carefully suppressed.

The Leader turned away. "Leave us," he said. "I would speak to Itachi alone."

XXX

"Itachi," Pain said softly, though his tone was still not bereft of the natural aura of dominance that he exuded with his very presence. "Will you not reconsider this foolishness?"

I remained silent. That question was not even worth a response.

Then, the self-proclaimed god did something even I had not expected.

He sighed.

It was a disturbingly human expression on the face of a god.

"I had hoped that after all this time, you might begin to see things from our perspective, that perhaps, your beliefs would change, but I see that I was wrong."

"I will not apologize," I responded calmly, evenly.

He shook his head. "No, I expect that you will not."

He turned away, forming a seal to end the jutsu, but before he could, I cut him off. "Pain, I have one last request."

The man froze, then turned back.

"After our battle, I ask that you do not target Sasuke."

He studied me for a moment, implacable as always. I met his gaze without wavering. Finally, he nodded.

"Even if you do not believe in our ideals, you have been our comrade for many years now, Itachi. You have my word."

I nodded slightly, and made to dispel the communication jutsu.

"However."

That one word cut through me like a knife. Pain's eyes turned flinty, the centers of the twin ripple-patterns stabbing into me like icicles.

"Know this, Itachi: If your brother attempts to attack Akatsuki or obstruct our goals, I _will_ kill him, promise or no."

_I will not attack him until he attacks me._

It was my turn to study the leader, to take in his features. Finally, I nodded once more.

"Very well."

That would be the most Pain would concede, I knew.

Now, I could only hope that Sasuke would be intelligent enough to avoid attacking until he was truly ready.

XXX

I stepped into the densely-forested area, not making even the most cursory attempt to hide my presence, my sharingan blazing in my eyes as I looked up.

I had found him, or at least one of his clones.

"Show yourself, Uzumaki Naruto."

There was a short pause, the boy no doubt wondering whether to stand and fight, or run. Eventually, he stepped out from behind the tree he had been using as cover.

"Are you here to capture me?" Anger and fear mixed with an undercurrent of… determination?

Impressive. He actually thought he could win.

Not that he could, of course. With the medicine, it would take at least one more week before the worst of the symptoms of my disease set in, followed by a slow and painful death, but for now I was operating at near-full strength.

Or perhaps, he knew he did not stand a chance, but was simply that determined to save Sasuke, which was just as commendable in its own right.

"No," I responded to the boy's question. "I merely wish to speak with you."

Two clones leapt out of the trees behind me, both holding orbs of spiraling chakra.

In an instant, there was a kunai in each of my hands. Without bothering to look back, I threw them.

With two pops, the clones were dispelled as they were both stabbed in the chest. My kunai clattered to the ground a moment later.

To his credit, Naruto did not even appear fazed. "As if I'd ever believe that," he responded, trying to sound confident.

However, I noticed a trickle of sweat running down his face even as he said the words.

I lowered my hands to my sides in a slow, languid motion, observing the expressions crossing Naruto's face as I did.

_When facing a sharingan-bearer alone, one's only hope is to escape the battlefield…_

That was simply general combat doctrine. More than that, though, Naruto knew my power, and I could tell that he remembered it. Even with my eyes as weakened as they were, it was easy to see the naked terror he exuded from every pore of his being.

And yet, above that all, even stronger than his fear was that determination, driving him forward, not letting him retreat no matter the odds.

"You know that you are alone… Why do you not run?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

The boy scoffed. A comical gesture, but a brave one.

"My numbers can go from one to a thousand in an instant!" he declared, and I knew it to be true. "And," he continued, "I can't escape yet, not when capturing you means that I get to see Sasuke again."

I felt my lips, hidden under the large collar of my coat, twitch up at the edges, and for once, I did not attempt to arrest the motion.

"Why do you care so much about my brother?" I asked. "He is a missing-nin now, a traitor to his home and comrades." I spoke slowly to drive in the next words as painfully as possible. "Just like me."

"Sasuke isn't _anything_ like you!" Naruto half-snarled, his anger overwhelming his fear. "And I think of him as more of a brother than _you_ ever could!"

There was a certain irony there, that Naruto could both be so right and so wrong at the same time.

The boy bit his lip and charged.

Before he had even covered half the distance, I raised two fingers and pointed at him.

And with that, he was under my spell.

The world turned red, bathed in the light of dusk and wavered around us, broken and shimmering, as storms of crows cawed and flew through the sky.

"You are already within my genjutsu," my voice whispered from every corner of the false world.

"Damn!" Naruto froze.

The crows cawed and swirled together into a single form which I could use to interact with Naruto more directly.

"I will tell you once more," I said, "I simply wish to speak."

XXX

I raised two fingers, and sent out a pulse of chakra.

There was a short sense of something snapping in half, and a moment later, Naruto collapsed to his knees breathing heavily.

"What… What're you trying to do?" he asked between his panting. "You're after the Kyuubi sealed within me, aren't you? Why aren't you trying to captu-"

"I'm leaving," I said, cutting him off without a second thought. "I have something important to attend to."

I had given Naruto what he would need. I doubted it would be necessary, but it was a prudent course of action nonetheless.

And a moment later, I was gone in a murder of crows.

XXX

"Kisame," I said. "Please guard the entrance to this area. Make sure that only Sasuke passes."

My partner nodded, and for once, I saw that he was not smiling. "I will, Itachi-san."

I smiled, nodded, moved to walk past him, but before I could go, Kisame spoke again.

"It's been a good ride, hasn't it?" he asked, and I saw he was smiling now, though rather than the callous, simple joy it normally reflected, there was now a sense of wistful nostalgia as well.

I nodded, and allowed my iron grip on my expressions to relax for a few minutes.

"The very best," I responded.

Kisame grinned, and this time, there was also a hint of joy there. "Thanks, Itachi-san. We're very different people, but… I'm glad that I met you."

"I feel the same," I responded, and with a bit of shock, realized that it was true. I _was_ happy to have met him.

A moment later, he shook his head and looked up, his typical expression now back in place. "Save a spot in the afterlife for me, won't you, Itachi-san?"

I gave him a smile, a real smile as I walked past.

"I will."

XXX

And so now, I sit and await my death.

My legs are crossed, my left arm resting in the lapel of my coat, and my eyes shut as I enjoy the gentle patter of rain on the walls outside, the stillness of the vast empty space around me.

Strangely, I feel no fear, only a complete sense of _rightness_.

I had known it from the beginning.

It is time for the ending.

Soon, Sasuke will be here.

Soon, he will have his reckoning.

Soon, I will finally be able to rest.

_My beloved little brother…_

I feel a whisper of something long past crossing my face.

_I am waiting._


	10. The Liar's Guide to Misdirection

Chapter 9: The Liar's Guide to Misdirection

_Name: Karin_

_Statistics:_

_Ninjutsu: 3.5, Taijutsu: 3, Genjutsu: 4, Intelligence: 5, Strength: 2, Speed: 2, Stamina: 4, Handseals: 2_

_Total: 25.5_

_Skills:_

_Chakra sensor_

_Medical-nin_

_Support-type._

_Threat Rating: C - Engage directly without attempting an ambush. Do not allow her a chance to hide._

_XXX_

_Name: Juugo_

_Statistics:_

_Ninjutsu: 1, Taijutsu: 4.5, Genjutsu: 1, Intelligence: 2, Strength: 5, Speed: 5, Stamina: 5, Handseals: 1_

_Total: 24.5_

_Skills:_

_Transformation - Randomly transforms into a monstrous form with incredible strength, speed and stamina, though user loses much of their reasoning and intelligence. Causes user to grow stronger as the battle continues._

_Threat Rating: B - Ambush and strike before he can transform._

_XXX_

_Name: Hozuki Suigetsu_

_Statistics:_

_Ninjutsu: 4, Taijutsu: 3.5, Genjutsu: 3.5, Intelligence: 3, Strength: 3.5, Speed: 3, Stamina: 3, Handseals: 4_

_Total: 27.5_

_Skills:_

_-Hozuki Water Transformation_

_-Suiton ninjutsu_

_Threat Rating: A - Preferably ambush. Failing that, employ lightning and powerful fire jutsu to overcome his defenses._

_XXX_

_Name: Uchiha Sasuke._

_Statistics:_

_Ninjutsu: 5, Taijutsu: 3.5, Genjutsu: 4.5, Intelligence: 4.5, Strength: 3.5, Speed: 5, Stamina: 3.5, Handseals: 4.5_

_Total: 34_

_Skills:_

_-Sharingan_

_-Raiton ninjutsu_

_-Katon ninjutsu_

_Threat Rating: S - Engage with superior numbers only, preferably a squadron of jounin. Expect casualties. Capture alive._

_-Konoha Bingo Book Entries on Team Taka_

XXX

As usual, when I awakened, it was almost immediate.

My eyes shot open, and I sat up in my chair, blinking once to clear my eyes at the ray of light streaming in from the large, open verandah to my right.

Taking in my surroundings, I noticed that I had been sitting next to Juugo's bed. The big man was looking much better than he had been two days ago, right after our fight against Deidara, but even then, he was haggard-looking and still obviously injured. His torso was wrapped in bandages, and he was breathing slow and deep.

"Yo, Sasuke," Suigetsu called out from behind me. I turned around to face him. "You just get up?" he asked.

I gave him a nod, and slowly rose to my feet, massaging my forehead as I did. "Anything come up?" I glanced around the room. "And where's Karin?"

Suigetsu shrugged, and walked to the door, reaching to move it aside. "Karin's out in town, gathering intelligence and purchasing supplies. Now that you're awake, I suppose I'll go get-"

And that was when the sliding door was kicked off of its tracks, straight onto Suigetsu's unsuspecting form. Behind it, Karin emerged, glasses gleaming, a sense of urgency marked on her face. I noticed Juugo stir and start to rise behind me, shocked by the sudden sound.

"Sasuke!" she called, ignoring Suigetsu, who, unable to turn into water fast enough to avoid the unexpected blow, was still making burbling noises from underneath the door and Karin's foot. "We're being followed! We have to leave!"

I blinked, and quickly rose to my feet.

"Konoha," I muttered, my eyes flicking to Juugo as my thoughts raced.

It was obvious that he would not be able to come with us, still injured as he was. He would just slow us down.

"How far behind are they?" I asked.

Karin shook her head. "Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible."

I glanced back at the now-conscious Juugo again.

Apparently, he was now awake enough to notice my look. He shook his head. "Leave me behind, Sasuke. I'll just slow you down, and the team isn't after me anyways."

I thought about it for a moment, then dismissed the thought, shaking my head. "No, that's a bad idea. Tobi is still out in the woods around here somewhere, and you're injured, easy pickings."

Two days ago, I probably would have mentioned how I still needed to be around to serve as his cage. Now I was almost certain that that was no longer truly necessary.

And even then, beyond the monster, beyond his uncontrollable urges, Juugo was my _friend_.

I trusted him.

"Sasuke," Karin said, and I noticed that she had finally moved off of Suigetsu, who was now heaving in great gulps of air between his pained groans. "I'm pretty sure that the pursuers are tracking us through your scent. I think that if Juugo used his birds, we might be able to divert them by scattering scraps of your old clothes in different directions."

I thought for a moment. It was a good plan, but…

I shook my head. "No. Scattering them is unacceptable. It would allow Tobi to pick them off individually."

And if Naruto was with the retrieval team, as I suspected he would be, then separating him from the rest of them, and allowing him to exhaust himself by creating Kage Bunshin to search in every direction would be a bad idea.

Suigetsu finally got to his feet, rubbing his head as he pushed the broken door of his body. "Sasuke…" he asked slowly. "Why are ya so scared of that Tobi guy? He was an idiot!"

I shook my head firmly. "He was far more dangerous than he let on. Possibly more so than Deidara."

Karin nodded in agreement. "You didn't feel his chakra." She shuddered. "It was… cold. Colder than Itachi's, even."

Suigetsu sighed and rubbed his head. "If you say so…" he muttered.

"Well?" Karin asked, and I turned back to her. "What do we do?"

I glanced at Juugo, and thought for a moment.

Scent-tracking, scattering clothes, and a team that was specifically pursuing me…

I felt the beginnings of a plan in my head, and smirked.

I looked up at all three of them in turn.

"Karin," I said. "I have a plan. Let Juugo bite you."

"Sasuke," she started. "That won't be enough. He's too-"

"Do it," I cut her off firmly. She opened her mouth once more, possibly to protest, but it clicked shut a moment later, and she nodded before moving to his side.

"Sasuke?" Juugo asked, sounding curious now. "What are you planning?"

I turned my smirk on him. "Konoha's here after me, right?" I asked.

He nodded slowly.

"Well I'm going to give them _exactly_ what they want."

And I explained.

XXX

When I was finished, Suigetsu blinked and smacked his palm into his face. "As expected, your plans are all insane. Even when they _don't_ involve blowing yourself up!"

I almost smiled. "Insane," I said, "but brilliant."

Karin rolled her eyes. "Like 'facing Orochimaru on your own'-level brilliance? Or something even _more_ brilliant?"

I shrugged. "Hey, they've worked so far, haven't they?"

"Yeah, because you've been lucky," she rejoindered.

"Luck is also a form of skill."

She snorted. "A skill granted only to the most mentally-challenged among us."

I rolled my own eyes and turned to Juugo, who was looking at me intently.

"Sasuke," he started, "you don't need to do this."

I blinked and tilted my head quizzically. "Of course I do, Juugo. What are you saying?"

"You could just leave me behind," he suggested.

"And you could've let me be hit by a dozen bombs. You didn't."

Juugo said nothing, just watching me. I sighed.

"We're a team," I said. "Comrades. We don't leave our own behind, no matter what."

"Why not?" Juugo asked, honest curiosity in his voice.

"Because in the world of shinobi, those who break the rules may be considered trash, but those who abandon their comrades are _worse_ than trash."

Suigetsu sighed, Karin smacked her forehead with her palm, and Juugo just watched me.

But even then, I could see that all three of them were smiling.

I grinned.

"Let's do this."

XXX

I was waiting near the stalls right outside the inn when I felt _him_ approaching from behind me.

I snapped shut the book I had been flipping through, which happened to be one of the latest of Jiraiya's novels, and smiled.

"Hello, Naruto."

He froze. Apparently, he'd thought he'd been being sneaky.

I turned around and faced him, wiping the grin off my face. The black cloak I was wearing was a contrast to Naruto's white. His expression was a mixture of annoyance and anticipation. He rolled his eyes and brought his hands up into a familiar, cross-shaped seal, though he didn't activate the jutsu immediately.

"Shoulda known I wouldn't be able to sneak up on you, bastard."

I tilted my head, looking behind him.

"Where are the others?" I asked calmly.

He smirked, and an instant later, Kakashi and Sakura landed to either side of him. My sensei still had his sharingan covered, but I could feel the tension rolling off of him in tides. Sakura had an almost-fanatically determined expression on her face.

I blinked. "Ah."

"You're trapped, Sasuke," Kakashi said, his voice uncharacteristically serious. "Give up."

I raised my eyebrow. "And if I don't?"

Sakura cracked her knuckles. "Then we'll beat you down until you're unconscious and drag you back!" she declared.

My other eyebrow came up. Apparently Sakura really had grown some fangs to match her bark.

Naruto's smirk widened as three more people landed behind him. All of the members of Team 8 except Kurenai.

A tracking team. I glanced between the three of them, a sudden wave of nostalgia threatening to overwhelm me.

However, when I spoke again, it was in a cold voice. "I already know why these losers are here. Why are you?"

Kiba smirked. "Because Naruto's too nice to stomp on you when ya try to run, bastard!"

If I had a third eyebrow, it would have shot right up into my scalp. Naruto and Sakura's palms simultaneously struck their foreheads. Hinata smiled awkwardly and tried to look suitably impressed. Unfortunately, she didn't do it very well.

"Because you did such a _great _job of that during the last retrieval mission," I murmured. Naruto frowned, Sakura covered her mouth to stifle a laugh before immediately retracting it with a mildly guilty look, and Kakashi's single-visible eye curled downwards, showcasing his amusement. Hinata somehow managed to look even _more_ awkward in that moment.

"Hey!" Kiba shouted.

I shot him the most amused and condescending glance I could muster, and turned away.

"And you?" I asked Shino. Kiba was still blubbering to the side, I noticed, but I payed him no mind.

Shino didn't do anything for a moment, and I realized that he was actually surprised.

Was he really _that_ used to being ignored?

I stared at him a few moments more, then spoke. "No response, huh?"

I turned away, ignoring the sudden wave of soul-crushing despair emanating from the boy's chakra. I glanced at Hinata, concluded that the nervous-looking girl wouldn't be saying much, and looked back towards Naruto shaking my head in exasperation.

"When are you going to learn, Naruto? You failed three years ago, at the Valley of the End. What makes you think you'll succeed now?"

"Because this time," he said, calm, confident. "I have my friends, my comrades here to help me!"

"Friends?" I asked. "Comrades? What do they matter?"

Naruto opened his mouth, but nothing came out. It snapped shut a moment later. He ground his teeth together, staring at me.

I looked back, not giving anything away. He truly seemed to be at a loss for words.

So when the response to my question did come, I had to admit that I was quite surprised.

"Because _you're_ our friend, and our comrade, Sasuke-san."

It was calm, confident, measured. There was, _conviction_ there, _true_ conviction.

I turned, slowly, and looked at Hinata, who I had so casually dismissed just a few moments before, staring at me, the previous awkwardness gone. Her eyes were filled with an aquiline sense of balance and determination.

I glanced back at Naruto, who for once wasn't either watching me or blabbering on. Instead, he was blinking, looking at Hinata with his jaw hanging open ever so slightly.

It was as if he had only just _truly_ seen her.

"Your girlfriend is quite impressive, Naruto," I conceded.

He blinked again. "Hey, wait-"

Hinata turned crimson, her face shining so bright that it nearly glowed. I could almost see the steam rising from her cheeks from the heat of her blush. In an instant, every bit of her previous composure had evaporated.

I blinked, then turned back to Kakashi and Sakura.

"You mean he _didn't_ know?" I asked incredulously.

"Hey!" Naruto called. "Didn't know what? Stop ignoring me!"

I ignored him.

"Ah well, you know." The copy ninja shrugged dramatically. Sakura just looked completely lost. "Young love is so… complicated. It's why I prefer my books. Much easier to digest."

I glanced at the Icha Icha novel, which I was still holding, and tossed it over to Naruto, who caught it awkwardly.

"Read that," I commanded, rolling my eyes. "And here I thought that _Jiraiya_ of all people would've given you a proper education in these matters…"

Hinata's face looked so hot that I could have baked a cake on it at this point.

Kakashi glanced at the novel that the still-stunned blonde was just holding, blinking repeatedly and making quiet, baffled noises.

"Very nice," he remarked. "A first edition? I'm impressed, Sasuke. Where did you get your hands on it?"

I carelessly shrugged. "Orochimaru had many resources at his disposal. It was far simpler than you would think."

Kakashi hummed an acknowledgement.

"What I wouldn't give for those…" he muttered, before speaking up.

"So, Sasuke," my sensei said, smiling.

"How long do you think you'll be able to keep delaying us?"

And with that, the tension ratcheted all the way back up.

I smiled back at him. "So you noticed?" I shook my head ruefully. "I suppose it's just one more thing I'll have to apologize for."

"Apologize?" Sakura asked, seeming to finally find the will to speak.

"You haven't realized?" My smile turned positively _feral_. "You are all already in my genjutsu."

Everyone reacted immediately, eyes widening as they brought their hands up to dispel the illusion.

And in that instant of distraction, I _moved_, spinning around and leaping onto the building behind me, before sprinting away across the rooftops.

"Sorry!" I called back at the Konoha shinobi. "That was a lie!"

XXX

I led them on a merry chase for nearly twenty minutes, weaving through the trees, confounding their efforts, confusing them with me, even placing a genjutsu to waylay them once in a while. At some point, Sai and Yamato joined the pursuers. There was a whole eight-man team after me.

One time, Naruto managed to charge ahead of the group, licking at my heels. I used the opportunity to move ahead of him, separating him further and further from the group. Then I spun around and kicked him to the ground, right before disappearing in a burst of speed.

After that, the Konoha shinobi were so far behind that I had to slow down a bit just to let them catch up.

I was faster than my pursuers, but they had far more stamina than I did. After twenty minutes of running at near-breakneck speeds, I could feel my energy beginning to ebb.

Naruto, on the other hand, had seemingly-boundless energy. He kept on my heels at a steady pace for around three minutes after the others started to fall behind, and I found that I couldn't muster another burst of speed large enough to push him off my tail.

And even then, my chakra was running low. I couldn't keep this up for long.

And so, I picked a likely spot, and dropped to the ground, spinning around and drawing my Kusanagi.

Naruto was on me in an instant, a spiraling orb of chakra clutched between his hand and one of his clones.

I met his attack with my lightning-sheathed blade. The air filled with the crackling of lightning, as the bark on the trees around us was stripped off by the sheer force of our clash.

"Why? Why don't you understand, Sasuke?" he cried, sweat pouring down his face even as he pushed more chakra into his jutsu. " We can _help_ you! We want to beat Itachi just as much as you do!"

"I don't need you to help me deal with my own problems!" I snarled back, "I killed Orochimaru alone, and I'll deal with Itachi too!"

The jutsu clash intensified, the wind rushing past Naruto's body howling faster and faster as the crackling lightning from my blade arced wildly around us.

We inched closer and closer, until our faces were just inches apart. Blue and red. Sun, and shadow.

Naruto's rasengan _exploded_, and the two of us were blown away from each other. Naruto crashed into a tree trunk behind him, exploded through it, and smashed into the ground.

I tumbled backwards, hitting the dirt repeatedly until I finally managed to get my feet back under me, and slid back several feet more across the ground with them firmly planted in the ground.

Naruto pulled himself to his feet, and wiped away an errant piece of dirt staining his lower lip with his sleeve. I sheathed my sword.

"Sasuke," he pleaded, "let us help you find him! Let us help you fight him! _Please_!"

"I already _have_ found him!" I roared. "And you are between me and him! If you want to help me, then get out of the way and stop chasing me!"

Naruto clenched his jaw. I tightened my hands into fists.

We stared at each other, wordless and exhausted, for just an instant, looking into each other's eyes.

A wordless agreement passed between us.

I charged forward, fist cocked back, and Naruto did the same. We covered the distance in an instant, and I landed a bruising blow on his jaw, and moving my head to let his just barely graze me.

Dazed, Naruto pulled back.

I didn't let him retreat.

I lashed out, arms weaving fluidly through the air like serpents, striking his upper chest, solar plexus, and abdomen in quick succession. He drew back, trying to regain his bearings.

Pivoting on my left leg, I drove my right knee viciously into his stomach, doubling him over as it sent him flying.

He landed hard on his back, and coughed up blood.

"Can't you see, Naruto?" I called, something bordering on desperation in my voice as I watched him struggle to his feet. "You're not even a match for _me_! How can you expect to fight Itachi? How can you expect me to _let_ you? I could have killed you three times over already!"

Sakura dropped down next to Naruto, helping him get up, while Kakashi landed in front of him, just as he reached his feet. Naruto grinned and wiped the blood away from his lip as he let go of Sakura.

"That's because," he responded, a fierce grin crossing his features, "I have friends and comrades to cover my back and pick me back up if I ever fall down! People who can save me when I can't save myself."

I felt my mouth open, but nothing came out. The inside felt dry, like sandpaper.

I was suddenly struck by how _tired_ I was. I fell down into a sitting position, slumping and breathing heavily.

Kakashi smiled at me, stepping forward.

"You don't get to run away from us, Sasuke. We'll be there for you, no matter how hard you try to push us away."

Sakura smiled and nodded. "That's right, Sasuke-kun. We're Team Seven. We have to stick together!"

I looked between the three of them, so bright and confident.

And suddenly felt incredibly out of place.

The rest of the retrieval team landed behind him, Kiba with his confident grin, Shino, expressionless as always, and Hinata who smiled and tried not to blush when looking at Naruto.

"You said that you couldn't expect me to fight alongside you unless I could match you, bastard," Naruto said, walking forward to where I was sitting. "Well? D'you think ya can beat _all_ of us when together?"

I felt both of my swords, still sheathed, as a hard weight digging into my back as I continued to sit.

Naruto stretched his hand down to me. "C'mon, Sasuke. Let's do this together."

I looked at his outstretched hand, and felt my own twitch, trying to rise to grab it.

I felt a small, involuntary twitch of my lips.

And then, I smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. It's too late."

Naruto's eyes widened, but he didn't retract his hand. "What do you mean?"

I shook my head tiredly. "The leader has already found Itachi. He's moving to engage right now."

"The… leader?" Naruto muttered, before his eyes widened in comprehension. "You're a clone," he said, disbelieving, not _wanting_ to believe.

I saw Kakashi's face take on a sudden grim set behind, and a look of despair mixed with horror across Sakura's.

From victory into the depths of defeat. How many times had I taken satisfaction from that same look on the faces of my opponents?

Now, it just made me feel sick.

"I watched you use the jutsu so many times I could probably do it blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back," I confirmed.

"Where is the original?" Kakashi asked, quiet and calm.

I pointed north. "That way. The leader only left the village after I led you out."

Kiba looked that way, making a show of quickly sniffing the air, nodded to Kakashi, then frowned. He turned back to me. "But how did you mask your scent?"

"I didn't," I responded. "I just used your own perceptions and preconceived notions against you."

Kakashi, who had also looked almost puzzled a moment before, suddenly had a look of comprehension pass his face. "The inn," he breathed out. "The one which we met you in front of… The original Sasuke was hiding inside while you drew us off to a sufficient distance for him to run. You masked your trail by backtracking along it and providing a stronger scent to follow at the end."

I grabbed the lapel of my shirt and pulled at it. "I changed clothes," I admitted calmly. "These old ones are absolutely covered in my scent."

Sakura spun on them. "That's interesting and all, but we have to move! We need to get to the original before we run out of time!"

Kakashi gave a sharp nod and turned to the squad. "Get moving, all of you!" he called out. "Now!"

In a moment, every shinobi other than Naruto was gone. He looked down at me, and I raised an eyebrow.

Finally, he just nodded.

"Shadow clones carry all of their memories back to the original when they're dispelled," he said, "so I want you to carry a message to the original Sasuke."

"And what might that be?" I asked. I could feel my reserves of chakra, almost completely gone at this point. I had less than two minutes left.

"I want you to know that when I find you, I'm gonna give you the asskicking of your life, then drag you back with my _teeth_ if I have to. You're my friend, Sasuke, and I'm not gonna let you run forever!"

I just stared at him blankly for a moment, then nodded again.

"I'll make sure I know about it," I murmured drily. "Though, I suspect that _I'm_ not gonna be the one getting his ass kicked."

"Bastard! I'll totally beat the crap outta you!" Despite his words, Naruto was grinning.

I rolled my eyes. "In your dreams, moron." I could feel myself smiling too. I turned it into a mocking smirk. "See you soon."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You too."

Then I disappeared in a puff of smoke.

**A/N**: The funny thing about Trollsuke is that he's basically the same Sasuke as ever. He simply _says_ the things that he normally just notes in his internal monologue.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed.


	11. The Liar's Guide to Fratricide

Chapter 10: The Liar's Guide to Fratricide

We ran.

Weaving, dodging and leaping from branch to branch, we ran. Suigetsu supported Juugo from, while Karin kept out an eye for external threats.

On the horizon, I saw it.

The old Uchiha Hideout, on the outskirts of the Land of Fire. A relic from the Warring Clans era.

A dead city for a battle between brothers. It was fitting, in a way, that the last of the Uchiha would come together to do battle in a ruin where hundreds had once roamed the streets.

I could feel my chakra already flooding back, the taste of the soldier pill I had taken after creating the clone still lingering on my tongue: salty and sour.

Even after Karin's healing, Juugo was still breathing heavily, and I could sense he was struggling just to maintain his balance on each branch we landed on.

The other two, on the other hand, were fine. In the interests of not exhausting the others, I had set a more measured pace for us than my clone was probably taking in the opposite direction.

I could feel Itachi's chakra getting closer and closer as we continued to move. He was stationary, watching.

_Waiting_.

_Itachi…_

I felt a hint of something anticipatory twist my mouth.

_I am coming._

XXX

It was around fifteen minutes after we set out that we saw the first rooftop.

With a leap, the four of us cleared the forest and landed on it, sprinting forward towards the citadel at the center.

"Sasuke!" Karin shouted. "There's an incredibly strong chakra coming right at us, fast!"

_What?_

I skidded to a stop, sharingan blazing. Suigetsu's stop was a bit less abrupt, and he let Juugo down gently before grabbing the hilt of the sword across his back.

I felt something a mere second before _it_ arrived.

A figure landed on a nearby rooftop spire, pivoting on its foot to twirl around twice before crouching to face us. He held a massive, bandaged sword on his shoulder, and a very familiar-looking shark-toothed smile, one which I had seen mirrored on Suigetsu's face several times before.

"You're…" Suigetsu's voice was suddenly filled with a mix of fear and eagerness.

Before us sat the Monster of the Hidden Mist, Hoshigaki Kisame, his blue skin and dark gills standing out even against the background of the blue sky.

"Sasuke-kun." he said, his already-wide grin widening even further as his eyes passed over Suigetsu, "If you would, please continue on your own. Those are Itachi-san's orders." He looked over Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo. "The rest of you, wait here please."

"Hah!" Karin responded, adjusting her glasses. "Like hell we'd let Sasuke face Itachi alo-"

"Very well," I cut her off. "The only reason I formed this team in the first place was to help me get to him, after all. This works out perfectly."

Karin, Suigetsu and Juugo's eyes shot to me immediately, widening.

"Sasuke!" Karin exclaimed. "You can't! Let's beat this guy and all go together."

Kisame's smile didn't even change at her suggestion. "I'm not really in the mood for a fight…" he started. I almost snorted in disbelief. Kisame was probably always in a mood for a fight. "But if you insist on all going together, I won't be easy on you."

"Karin," I said. "Stay out of this. This is _my_ responsibility."

She turned around all the way. "If you think I'm going to let you go alone, then you're in for something else!" she cried out, infuriated. "Weren't you just talking about how we don't abandon our own? Don't be such a hypocri-"

Before she could react, I was in front of her, sharingan whirling in my eyes.

_Sleep._

I could feel her resisting, trying desperately to break the compulsion. She clawed, screamed in her mind, trying to stop me, trying to _make_ me stop. Her hands twitched as she attempted desperately to move them, to bring them up to claw at my face and break the genjutsu.

It was pointless.

Karin folded like a ragdoll. I caught her and lowered her gently down before turning to my other two companions.

"Sasuke, what-" Suigetsu's sword was out of its sheathe, and even Juugo looked suddenly wary.

I turned to the Hozuki. "Suigetsu, you're in charge while I'm gone. Karin will be up in a few minutes." I glanced back at the girl. "Make sure that she doesn't follow me."

Suigetsu's teeth grit together. "Sasuke…"

"If you try and stop me, I'll knock you out too." It was delivered emotionlessly and without threat. A simple promise of consequence for a chosen course of action.

Suigetsu's grip on his sword tightened, but he lowered it, nonetheless.

I turned back to Kisame. "If _anything_ happens to them…"

He rolled his eyes. "You'll slowly roast me over a cooking fire while feeding bits of me to a snake. Don't worry. I already know how you Uchiha work."

I grunted, and leapt past him in a single bound.

And that was when the rush of memories hit me.

"_You don't get to run away from us, Sasuke. We'll be there for you, no matter how hard you try to push us away."_

"_We're Team Seven. We have to stick together!"_

"_C'mon, Sasuke. Let's do this together."_

I felt my jaw clench, and something unpleasant clench in my gut.

"Shut up," I snarled under my breath, so quiet that no one but I myself could hear it. "Shut _up_!"

I pictured Karin, lying bonelessly on the tiles behind me.

I remembered how angry she had been when I had faced Orochimaru alone, reneging on a promise I had never intended to keep in the first place.

"I'm protecting them," I whispered to myself, now already twenty paces away from Kisame. "I _am_."

I knew it was true. I knew it in my mind, I knew it in my heart. I _knew_ this was the right thing to do.

But even then, the words tasted hollow on my lips.

XXX

I walked into the cavernous chamber, the fans painted on each of the walls, the tattered tapestries, a testament to the once great clan that had called this place home in an era long past.

_My_ clan. Destroyed by the man now sitting upon the throne in the center of that room.

I felt my rage bubbling to the surface, rage threatening to overwhelm me.

But I wasn't a child anymore. I could control my emotions.

And this time, I _would_ succeed.

Itachi's lips moved.

"What do you see with that sharingan of yours?"

I looked up at Itachi.

I saw many things.

The past. Team 7. Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto. _Home_. A place where I could be well and truly happy.

The present. Taka, Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin. People who had become my friends, even against my own will.

But most of all, there was the future, resplendent in my vision, just within my grasp.

"Right now," I whispered, "the only thing I see is your corpse lying on the ground at my feet."

It was all that mattered in that moment, making that vision a reality.

Itachi leaned back, his cold eyes still focused on my own, sharingan to sharingan.

"My death?" he whispered, though it carried through the empty chamber like a shout. He braced his arms against the armrests and slowly rose to his feet.

"Well then…"

He disappeared from vision, and suddenly, he was behind me, brushing past me like the wind.

"Let's see you try to make that a reality."

I smiled.

XXX

We spun simultaneously, arms lashing out, his with a kunai to strike, mine empty. We struck each other at the same time, our blows knocking the other's out of the way.

And then, almost instantly, Itachi changed his slash into a stab, sending the blade piercing towards my chest.

I didn't click my tongue. There wasn't enough time for it. I grabbed my sheathed Kusanagi with my free hand, drawing it halfway and allowing the tip of the kunai to meet its blunt edge, stopping the blow cold.

For an eternal moment, we stared at each other, me still smiling, him expressionless.

And then, the kunai was gone, retracted. Itachi's arm snaked around my own, catching it in a lock, and his foot lashed out. I barely managed to shift my blade slightly to the right, checking Itachi's kick

I realized the trap.

Itachi's other leg left the ground, landing on the blade just above the first. He used the momentum combined with the grounding my still-outstretched arm gave him to run up my sword, and with a flip, released my arm and kicked me in the face.

I managed to lean back just in time, weakening the strike considerably. Continuing with the motion, I fell backwards, turning the motion into a flip that placed me several paces away from Itachi once more, pushing my sword back into its sheath as I did.

My chakra sense tried to penetrate the world around me, but it felt like a mirage, both there and not.

I smiled, and formed a single seal.

_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu._

Itachi's eyes widened as he saw my incredibly fast usage of the jutsu. He probably believed that I still needed far more hand seals to utilize it.

Which, admittedly, was precisely what I had wanted him to think.

Itachi's seals, however were just fast enough to outpace mine. He breathed in, and an identical gout of fire emerged from his lips.

Perfect.

I pulled on the two lengths of ninja wire wrapped around my fingers, and suddenly, two fuuma shuriken came spiraling out of the darkness right behind my brother.

He barely had time to turn around, eyes widening, before they struck him, catching him in his spine and lower back, sending him toppling to the ground.

I knew that the real Itachi would have been able to dodge the blows.

I simply didn't care.

Continuing the illusion was to my advantage for the time. I needed answers, after all.

"You've become… strong," Itachi whispered once more as I approached his body.

I stepped over him, sword poised over his heart. "Before we end this, there's one thing I want to ask you, Itachi," I said, knowing full well that the end was not yet in sight.

Itachi reached up, two fingers, towards my forehead, as if trying to tap me on the forehead, like he had done in times long past. Then, he curled them down, pointing to my right.

I looked, and saw Itachi, still sitting on his throne, in the same position he had been in when I had walked into the room.

There was no surprise. Only acceptance. The body underneath me burst into a murder of crows, flapping, cawing, and fluttering all around the room before disappearing into the cracks in the walls.

And the world remained like paper, a thin surface covering what was underneath.

It seemed this phase of the battle was still not over.

"What do you wish to know?" Itachi asked. He still believed himself to have the advantage here, simply because I had not put in a real effort to interfere just yet.

How arrogant.

"Then I'll ask you," I said, and _flexed_ at the shape of the world around me. Not fighting back at all would appear suspicious as well. It was better to let him think I was still within his power, that I was actually fooled.

A blade sprouted from Itachi's chest, my new "real" body stabbing him from behind. In front, he saw my clone's body come apart, just like his own had just a moment before, dissolving into a nest of white snakes.

"Back then, you told me that if I gained the Mangekyou," I said, acting as if nothing had just happened, "that there would then be _three_ people who possessed it."

Itachi didn't speak, and I got the sense that he had been expecting this question. That was good. It would make it easier to prise the answer out of him.

"Who is Tobi?" I asked. "Who is that masked man, really?"

When I had first met Tobi, I had known he was dangerous. Karin had mentioned after the battle that his chakra had felt familiar. It was only later on that she realized why.

Tobi's chakra, while twisted, and mixed with something foreign, was extremely similar to the chakras of two other people she knew.

Namely, myself and Itachi.

I felt the first hint of true shock in my brother, quickly masked. He apparently hadn't expected me to know of that particular detail. He leaned back, blood running down his lips.

"Why do you wish to know?"

I remained impassive. "I intend to kill him next."

"Kill him?" Curiosity, and something else. Something unreadable.

"On the night of the clan's massacre," I continued, "you told me there was a third Uchiha still alive. A third Uchiha who you didn't kill. That means that he was your collaborator, who aided you in carrying out the massacre." I looked up. "Even you wouldn't have been able to defeat the entirety of the Konoha Military Police on your own."

Itachi smiled. "It seems that you figured that much out on your own. Why do you name Tobi as my collaborator? He is a fool."

"He merely _acts_ the fool," I said. "Which just makes him that much more dangerous."

Itachi nodded, sending ripples through the false world. I shifted the blade in his stomach, driving it in further with a sick, squelching noise, cutting him off before he could continue. "Who is he?" I asked again.

Itachi's next words shocked me into silence.

"He is Uchiha Madara."

"Uchiha… Madara?" I whispered.

I remembered the statue at the Valley of the End, segmented armor and long hair covering a fine-featured, but undeniably masculine face.

"One of the founding fathers of the Leaf, and the first man in history to unlock the Mangekyou sharingan," Itachi continued.

"Founding fathers?" I asked, incredulous, certain Itachi was lying. "If it was truly him, then he would be long dead!"

"Madara is alive," Itachi said, and the quiet conviction in his voice was obvious. "Whether or not you believe me is purely your own prerogative."

"Stop messing around! Tell me the truth!" I snarled.

"People…" Itachi said, "live their lives bound by their own perceptions of what is right and true. They call this 'reality'." I saw the blood continue to drip from my sword, still stuck out of Itachi's chest.

"However," he continued, "the rightness and truth of things is an ill-defined concept. An individual's reality might turn out to be nothing more than an illusion. We all live in our own realities, fashioned from the cloth of our assumptions. Wouldn't you agree, Sasuke?"

"Is there a point to this?" I asked, forcing myself to swallow my frustration.

Itachi's smile widened, and he turned to look behind the throne. "Madara being dead was simply a convenient assumption, just in the same way that you once believed that I was your caring older brother."

I grit my teeth, fury, hate, anger, mixed with unwelcome memories bubbling to the surface.

I didn't let it out. I controlled it, _focused_ it. "Is that so?" I asked quietly, then shook my head. "Enough of these games."

And I turned, fingers outstretched and sent a spear of lightning, straight backwards, through the rock of the throne right next to Itachi's head.

"I have changed, Itachi! I'm not the child who you so easily fooled all those years ago any longer! Now, I am your equal in every respect."

Itachi's lips twitched. "You still like to boast. Though," he murmured, "I suppose they are not mere boasts any longer."

The Itachi behind me faded into nothingness. "Then," I asked, "does that mean you're ready to get serious?"

He wasn't, of course, but there were still more questions I needed to ask him either way, more things I needed to know.

He closed his eyes in contemplation. "You have grown strong," he acknowledged, "but you still lack the same eyes that I possess."

"I will not take the easy way out in the pursuit of mere _power_," I snarled.

"You still dare to come before me, naive and young as you are?"

I stared for a moment.

Then, I smirked.

"Well then, why don't you use that Mangekyou sharingan of yours to kill me?"

Itachi sighed, and stood. "You certainly don't lack for confidence."

I narrowed my eyes as the last remnants of the illusion shattered around us.

Neither of us had actually moved during the prior confrontation. It had been conducted purely through genjutsu.

"Mangekyou sharingan," Itachi murmured, "these are very special eyes. They grant immense power, but from the moment you awaken them, they begin a slow descent into darkness. The more you use them, the greater the toll."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you mean?"

"No matter how sparing you are in their use, the light of the kaleidoscope shall eventually fade." He spoke the words as if he was merely discussing the weather, and his eyes began to twist, to change.

"Blindness?" I asked. "So that's the price you pay for the power to control the Kyuubi…"

Itachi began to walk down the steps before the throne. "I see that you read the stone tablet in the Naka shrine, like I instructed."

I stared at him, hard. "Just who is Madara?" I asked again.

"He is the first man to have ever tamed the Kyuubi with these eyes." The three-bladed shuriken pattern in each of Itachi's eyes was now obvious, and I felt him weaving the genjutsu over me.

I didn't stop him.

"He is an immortal man, my mentor and my accomplice. He is also the only man to have unraveled the final secret of the Mangekyou sharingan."

"There's more to it than the power to control the Kyuubi?" I asked, almost incredulous.

Itachi smiled.

And then, he told me of the blood-stained history of the Uchiha, and the secret of the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

XXX

I froze, trying to take in everything he told me.

Plucking out my _eyes_? He had spared me so that he could take my _eyes_?

"And that…" I whispered, my voice steadily rising in tempo as I spoke, "was why you killed every single member of the Military Police Force? That was why you killed Shisui?! That was why you killed Mother?! That was why you killed Father?! That was why you slaughtered the _children_? For more _power_?!"

I was almost screaming now, fury and hatred consuming me from within even as I spoke.

"You destroyed our clan, our _family_, for something so _stupid_?!"

My sharingan whirled, moving faster and faster, so quickly that I thought that they began to hurt.

"The belief that their lives were more valuable than the growth of my capacity is simply your own convenient assumption, Sasuke," Itachi said, his voice unwavering. "In this world, things like morals, convictions, and beliefs are all meaningless in the face of _power_."

I gritted my teeth, unable to contradict him. In that he was correct, at least. The only way to save others was through the exertion of strength. However...

"Power," I said quietly, "is nothing more than the ability to physically affect the world around you." I glared into his eyes, asking, _daring_ him to attack. "All I need to do now, is use my power to kill you, and all your dreams will turn to ashes."

Itachi unhurriedly began to push the arm he had been resting on his lapel into his sleeve. His face was calm again, impassive, that moment when he had declared that I would be his 'new light' seemingly forgotten. "Unfortunately, Sasuke, without the Mangekyou, you lack the power to do so." The arm came free from his sleeve "I am sorry, but your vision of my death will remain just that: an illusion that only you can see."

"You can use those tainted eyes of yours as much as you please," I spat out. "But I will make that illusion a reality!"

The world around me shifted once more. I moved my chakra sense into my own body, and felt Itachi's power, his chakra, entering my body.

This had been the reason I had learned the skill from Karin in the first place. Chakra sensors could always detect when they were under genjutsu simply by turning their senses inwards. I had confidence in my ability to break any genjutsu, but to break it, I had first know I was under it.

I looked around the false world, scanning, feeling out the source of Itachi's power, searching for the smallest fault.

There were none. I would have to break through directly.

Itachi's eyes were growing hard, and he shifted his stance, summoning two shuriken from within his sleeves.

I felt the cursed seal at my neck _pulse_. Tendrils of darkness spread from it, across my body, across my face. I channeled the powerful, cursed chakra into both of my eyes, drawing upon all of my strength of will, every bit of chakra in my body, every single power granted to me by my own eyes.

And _pushed_.

Before Itachi could move to fling his shuriken forward, before he could even widen his eyes, the world around us shifted, color bleeding out of the ceiling, the floor, the walls, our clothes, and finally, our faces.

Then, it split. First, the space around my eyes distorted, breaking apart as if everything around me had been split in half. Then, Itachi's face was sliced straight through, like a photograph cut in half by a pair of scissors.

Next came the ceiling, then the floor. Straight, perfect cracks ran through the world, and our environment contorted further and further until all that was left was an eldritch blob of something that may have once vaguely resembled the real world.

And then, it fell to pieces, like a castle that had lost its foundation, and crumbled to pieces under its own weight.

XXX

As I returned to the real world, I felt a sudden wave of exhaustion hit me and I collapsed to one knee, our heavy breathing now masking the faint patter of rain on the walls of the citadel. With a short, controlled exertion of will on my part, the cursed seal quickly receded back into its place in my neck.

In front of me, I saw Itachi doing the same, a look of absolute, unadulterated shock on his face, this time not gone in a mere instant.

"You… you broke through my Tsukuyomi?" His voice shook, ever so slightly, but I could hear it this time.

I didn't waste time making a boast. I rose up, just a bit, bracing my leg against the ground, and shot forward at the still-kneeling Itachi, Orochimaru's sword in one hand, and a simple kunai in the other.

Itachi's eyes widened, and barely got back to his feet in time to leap out of the way of my strike, flipping backwards several feet and summoning three shuriken to each hand as he landed, flicking them out towards me as he did.

I didn't stop. I continued my sprint, straight at him, my sharingan seeing the projectiles flying at me in slow motion.

Leap, spin, cut.

Three shuriken clattered to the ground, one sliced in two pieces, and I continued sprinting, not even slowing down.

Itachi's teeth were gritted together, shock shown in his eyes. He reacted, seemingly on instinct, arms lashing out to grab both of mine in a hard grip.

I lashed out with my foot, trying to kick him in the stomach. His own came up at the same time, and he swiped my other foot out from under me, accepting my own weakened blow, and tearing the kunai from my hand. I unceremoniously toppled to the ground.

He was on me in an instant, kunai at my throat, pinning my left hand with his leg, and it was my turn to grab his wrist, desperately holding him in place as he inched closer and closer. His other hand whipped out, reaching for my face, digging into my eye-socket. I was defenseless.

"Sasuke…" he whispered. "You are my light…"

"Itachi…" I said, straining furiously, trying to lift his leg. "You made… two convenient assumptions during this battle."

He didn't respond, but his hand paused as he slowly eased out my left eye from its orbit.

"The second…" I continued between shallow breaths, unheeding of the dark shadow above me, "was your belief that I would be susceptible to your genjutsu."

My eye was almost completely out of its socket now. Just one more yank, and Itachi would pull it free.

"And what was the first?" he asked.

I smirked, not caring of my position.

"The first…" I said, and I felt a sudden rush of cold satisfaction at the look of uncertainty now crossing Itachi's face. I took in another breath. "The first…" I repeated, "was your assumption that _I_… was the original Sasuke."

I took a moment to savor Itachi's dumbstruck expression before dispelling myself.

XXX

Outside, I felt the rush of memories hit me, and smiled.

Rain pattered down upon my body, and I relished in the feel of it, along with the faint, lingering scent of smoke in the air, the only remaining evidence of the dozens of fire dragons I had sent screaming upwards just a few seconds before.

I felt Itachi, still inside the hideout, unmoving. He was probably still looking down at where my clone had been lying, just moments before, in bafflement, trying to understand what was occurring.

I raised one hand up, and an arc of lightning shot from it into the sky.

"_Kirin_," I whispered.

Then I brought my hand down.

"_Vanish with the roar of thunder._"

The sound alone nearly shattered my eardrums.

The old Uchiha hideout, a structure that had withstood for more than two centuries of emptiness, unaffected by the passage of time, was vaporized in an explosion of ozone. Concrete exploded outwards in chips, raining down on top of me, and the entire mountaintop cracked like an eggshell, flattening into a wide plateau.

In the end, the massive dome containing the chamber in which my brother had met my clone was nothing more than a crater in the ground. A single, forlorn wall, solitary and pathetic, was the only bit of the hideout that survived, and even that crumbled to dust only a moment later.

I surveyed the carnage around me, panting in exhaustion.

Nothing.

An elated sense of victory started to bubble up within me. My smile widened, and I felt my fist slowly start to unclench.

But then, I felt it.

A shift in the rubble as an immense piece of what had once been the wall of the hideout was pushed aside, revealing what had been trapped underneath.

I stopped breathing, shocked beyond all measure.

He had survived?

He had _survived_?

How _dare_ he?

An immense red-colored warrior rose from beneath it, holding a sword which sprouted from a gourd held at its side, and a shifting, spinning shield in the other. It was covered from head to toe by a shifting, ethereal cloak, which, contrary to common sense, was cracked and splitting all over its body.

A moment later, it screamed, the cloak dispersing to reveal a four-armed, almost human-looking figure underneath. The figure roared into the sky, and then broke into pieces, like a pane of glass.

And where it had once stood, there was only one, very familiar man left. A figure that was bleeding from the mouth, breathing heavily.

He clutched at his shoulder as his familiar black cloak, adorned with a pattern of red clouds, crumbled into dust on his body. He was blinking as he stepped into the sunlight, but despite this, his head was still held high, gaze unwavering as it met mine.

I leapt forward, moving between the rocks, and landing a few feet in front of him..

"I did not expect you to push me so far, Sasuke…" he said. His voice was steady, as unmoved as ever.

"Why won't you just _die_, you cockroach?!" I screamed, ten years of fear, self-loathing, and pure hatred all overwhelming me at once. "How do you keep surviving?! You should be _dust_!"

_Why is this so easy for you?_

We stared at each other as our breathing slowed, him expressionless, me furious.

And then, Itachi's lips turned upwards into a mocking, hateful expression of superiority.

"Was this the death you envisioned for me, Sasuke?"

There was no more need to talk. There was no more need to say _anything_.

With a scream of of the rawest, deepest hatred I could muster from the pit of my stomach, I charged, both swords drawn.

XXX

Itachi kunai lashed out, and he diverted the Ame-no-Murakumo, catching the hand that held my Kusanagi in a lock. He released his block on the first sword, and grappling my arm, cartwheeled over my back and used the momentum to hurl me bodily ten feet away.

I growled, rising to my feet, and sheathed both swords. I reached to the bandages on my arms, and activated the seals on them. Six shuriken appeared in my hands.

Itachi, watching me do this, brought his hands up to his shoulders. When he brought them back down, each one held three metal stars.

For a split second, we looked into each other's eyes.

Then, simultaneously, our hands shot out, and the metal disks arced across the distance. The three I had thrown from my left hand had been aimed at Itachi, the three others directed at the ones he had thrown at me.

Six clangs resounded through the air, but even before the projectiles hit the ground, we were already moving.

More and more shuriken, hidden within seals we had placed all over our bodies and clothes flashed out, and in seconds, the entire area in front of us was a veritable maelstrom of clashing metal and spinning blades.

Our shuriken rebounded off of each other in dizzying patterns, both of us attempting to maneuver our already-flying projectiles into our opponent's blind spots. Many of the disks exploded into into shards of metal, whether by explosive seals etched into their surfaces or simply from no longer being able to take the strain of the constant strikes from their brothers, trying to push them in one direction or another, or even from a meeting with the few lightning-laced ones I sent into the storm, all of which sliced through the others like paper.

Both of us knew that a single mistake would mean death at this point. If even one shuriken struck home, the momentary distraction would be enough to overwhelm the other.

One of Itachi's shuriken flew out of the cloud of metal, heading straight towards me. Instead of dodging out of the way, my hand shot out, years of honed instincts surging to the forefront of my mind, and I snatched it out of midair, sending it back to join its brethren just a moment later, now crackling with lightning.

I saw Itachi casually catch that same shuriken by the central ring a blink of an eye after I had returned it and hurl it back in once more. It shattered to pieces after contact with one of its exploding kin just a second later.

A drop of sweat ran down my cheek even as I pressed the attack, inching the rain of weapons closer and closer to Itachi's side. I could see him grit his teeth as he saw himself being driven back, step by agonizing step.

However, just as I had almost won, almost broken his defenses, it ended as abruptly as it had started.

I had run out of shuriken.

Across from me, I saw Itachi do the same, to the same result.

We both came to the realization at the same time.

I charged, straight forward, and in front of me, I saw Itachi do the same. Ame-no-Murakumo was in my right hand in a heartbeat, and I saw that Itachi had a kunai in his.

Our free hands shot out, and we caught each other's weapon-hands in iron grips.

I pushed, trying to inch my right arm forward, closer and closer to Itachi's head, and desperately trying to hold his own weapon arm back. My muscles screamed in pain, but I could slowly feel him giving way under my slightly superior physical strength.

And then, a shadow fell over me. My eye_s _shot up, and I saw two more copies of Itachi seemingly dissolve out of mist behind the one in front of me.

While I may have stopped attempting to extend my chakra sense over the environment in order to preserve my dwindling chakra reserves, I still had more than enough to look inside. I was not under genjutsu, so that meant there was only one possible explanation.

Itachi had created these two clones during our shuriken exchange. He had somehow woven the seals during the fight itself.

There was no time to think. Desperation and fear lent me strength, and I channeled a small amount of chakra through my foot, sticking one of the shuriken still under my feet to the tip of my shoes.

My foot, the bladed edge of the shuriken still sticking out just in front of my toes, lashed out at Itachi's leg, as if to knock him off balance. Like I had expected him to, he shifted his foot, bringing his leg to guard. The shuriken dug into his flesh, and Itachi flinched, giving me the moment I needed to break his grip and give him a full-bodied kick to the chest, sending him sliding away.

But not before he stabbed his kunai deep into my left shoulder.

I felt blood spurt out of the injured limb, the muscle tearing as he wrenched his blade free. The entire limb went limp with a sickening squelch.

But I didn't have time to worry about it just then. The two clones were still bearing down on me. Ignoring the blood dripping down my arm, I allowed my will to slacken ever so slightly, and the cursed seal at my neck _pulsed_.

Two massive, dark hand-like wings burst from my back, catching both of the clones in their grips, but not before one left a line of hot fire down my right cheek as it sliced me to the bone. A moment later, the wings squeezed, and each clone dissolved into a murder of flapping, cawing crows that flew away into the sky.

I was breathing heavily as I let the transformation fade back, pulling the kunai from my now-useless arm.

And then came the pain. I bit back a scream as my good hand shot to my shoulder, trying to stem the flow of blood.

I saw Itachi already on his feet in front of me, and knew that I would not have time to bandage the wound.

I rose up, slowly, trying not to strain the limb and grit my teeth.

I knew what was coming next.

The Amaterasu.

Itachi crouched, hands blurring as he wove the seals for his jutsu.

I didn't let him complete it.

With a thought, another massive fuuma shuriken was clutched in my good hand. I flung it at Itachi, slowly, by my standards, but still fast enough.

There was no surprise on Itachi's face, even as he saw the weapon spiraling through the air straight at him. The seals he was weaving simply _shifted_.

He breathed in, and knowing what was coming next, I did the same, bringing my hand up into a two-fingered seal of my own.

_Katon: Goukakyuu!_

Each of us simultaneously blew out a massive gout of flame. They collided in the center of the melee where our shuriken battle had taken place just moments before, and met on top of the weapon I had just thrown.

Every bit of metal in that area melted in less than a second, fusing with the stone floor and leaving a smooth sheet of iron and tin. An acrid scent filled my nostrils as we continued to blow. Small cinders, countless in number, were pushed away from the conflagration, landing on the stone rubble around us. Some of them landed as far away as the forest, and miniscule blazes soon erupted into raging forest fires.

And even as it burned in front of me, I felt my life seeping out of my limp shoulder, slowly, but surely. I felt a growl building up in my stomach, and the black markings of the cursed seal inched across my flesh, lending me power beyond my own boundaries, and staunching the flow of blood for a short time, at least.

And my gout of flame moved forward.

It was a slow thing at first. A single inch gained, then another, and another. But soon, it became a steady motion, as I pushed the flames further and further back.

For a moment, hope rose to the surface. Hope that I would defeat Itachi, hope of _victory_.

And then, in the very next, it was crushed to bits.

Darkness erupted from the center of the inferno, black flames that consumed everything they touched, burning away not only the two massive blasts of fire that Itachi and I had spat out, but also the very _chakra_ that made them up.

I leapt backwards, stumbling on the landing, and stared in horror as the last licks of fire sputtered, and were finally consumed by the unquenchable black flames of Amaterasu.

Itachi's right eye was closed, but I could feel the pressure behind it even without my chakra sense. Something behind the lid strained for release, and I knew that he was not done.

I turned, and ran. Not away from my brother - I knew that was pointless - but perpendicular to him.

Itachi could burn everything he could see. That meant that I had to get out of his view as quickly.

And then, they appeared.

Black flames licked at my heels as I moved with every bit of speed I could muster, ignoring the ache of my useless arm, ignoring the burning pain in my cheek, focusing only on pumping more strength into my legs, to get just one more burst of speed, to keep as far ahead of the flames as I could.

Around Itachi I ran, and to my left, the forest erupted in black flames just behind me. A quarter of the way, a half, three-quarters.

But as I reached one full circumference of the ruin, I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep this up. Already, my limbs were screaming at me, begging for rest, and my pace was slowing, the black flames coming ever closer and closer to my body.

Finally, I did the last thing I could. I drew recklessly upon Orochimaru's chakra, and raised my good hand up to the burning wound in my cheek, smearing it with blood.

And then, I even as I kept moving, I slammed it to the ground.

_Kuchiyose no jutsu!_

There was a massive burst of smoke between me and Itachi, and I felt almost all of the remaining chakra in the cursed seal drain away like a water in a leaking cup as I ground to a stop, panting as I fell to all fours, trying to regain some small strength before the battle continued.

And then, Manda _screamed_.

The great snake, whom I had placed under my genjutsu the day I had killed Orochimaru, and whom I had now summoned as a shield to protect me, was consumed by the eternal black flames, contorting and convulsing in pain as he shrieked his fear and fury for all the world to hear.

It took long minutes, but slowly, the twitches died down and the screams with them, replaced by the occasional sandpaper-like rasp or gurgle.

And finally, three minutes later, he ceased even that. His once-magnificent body curled up, and started flaking away in the wind.

From dust to dust.

XXX

When I stumbled out from behind the remnants of Manda's corpse, cursed seal already receded, Itachi was waiting for me.

I had torn off strips of my shirt and used them to bandage up the wound on my left arm. The limb was still useless, but at least the bleeding had been staunched for a while.

Itachi, on the other hand, while visibly tired, appeared uninjured. As he saw me coming, he smiled.

I clenched my teeth together and charged, my fist cocked back.

Itachi blocked my clumsy attack effortlessly, snatching my fist, and pulling me face-to-face with him.

"You have lost, Sasuke. Why can you not simply accept it?"

I felt my expression twist, but before I could voice my furious response, Itachi squeezed my hand, hard, and I felt my fingers strain, bend, then _snap_ with a sharp retort.

I screamed, my pain starting to overwhelm me as Itachi continued to force me to look him in the eye, smiling all the while.

And then, he released me, and as my I stumbled back, his other hand flashed out, and drove into my ribs. I felt several of them shatter under the impact as I was sent tumbling through the air, smashing into the ground several times before landing on back.

I coughed and tasted iron in my mouth, trying to rise back to my feet, knowing it was hopeless. I didn't even have the strength to keep my sharingan active any longer.

Itachi was in front of me a second later, and his foot came down on my chest, holding me in place as he leaned down.

How?

How was he so strong?

After all of my struggles, after all of the pain and suffering, how could he just come over and _step_ on me, like this?

Despair, dark and heavy, flooded my breast, and I felt a terrible, helpless sense of loss come over me.

I couldn't win.

Itachi leaned back down to look me in the eye as I fought in vain to lift his foot.

"Your eyes are mine, Sasuke," he whispered as one hand slid down to touch the rim of my eyelid. "And I know who the first to taste their power shall be."

"W-What…" my voice was weak, broken, defeated, a stream of blood and spittle flowing out with each word, "what do you mean?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," he whispered, and a sudden chill took my heart, "Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi, Hozuki Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin." He laughed, a sound no human should have been capable of making.

"Did you think I didn't know about them?" he asked, noticing the expression of total shock on my face. "Did you think that by running away, you were _protecting_ them from me?"

He giggled hysterically.

I felt cracks running through me, through the core of 'Uchiha Sasuke'.

"Your truest friends and comrades," he continued, still chuckling. "The people you love… there is a certain irony there, is there not, Sasuke? That those you tried so very hard to protect for all these years would die because you tried to _save_ them?"

He laughed again, gloating, powerful, _victorious_.

I snapped.

Something, a source of power that I never knew I had had flooded through my body, granting me new strength, new power.

Cold fury washed through my veins, and my perspective on the world changed.

Itachi's foot on my chest was a heavy weight. A heavy weight, but not insurmountable.

I reached up once more, and Itachi laughed again, mocking my feeble efforts.

And then, I drew upon the last drop of power I could from the cursed seal in my neck. Not to change my arms or my legs, not to grow wings from my back or even to stop my wounds from bleeding.

No, I channeled them into my hands, _twisting_ them, using Orochimaru's chakra to form what I needed.

There was not even enough energy left to modify the entirety of the hand.

But that was fine.

I focused the power further, to the tips of my fingers, into the nails.

They elongated, growing longer and sharper, turning an inky black color, becoming as hard as steel.

Before my brother could even understand what I was doing, I grabbed his leg and _raked_.

The thin fabric of his clothes tore like paper, and I felt my nails pass through skin, flesh and muscle as if it were but air.

Itachi let out a sudden grunt of pain, his laughter cutting off abruptly, and almost lost his balance, backpedaling away frantically while trying to remain upright.

I was on my feet in a flash, and before my brother could even begin to bring up his guard, I drove my fist into his cheek, feeling and enjoying the crack of bones, not caring whether they were his or my own as I sent him flying through the air.

He smacked into the ground with a series of meaty thumps as he tumbled away, landing face-down on the hard rock.

I smiled in pleasure. _This_ was the true meaning of battle. _This_ was the ultimate pleasure.

_This_ was the dance.

Itachi pulled himself up, to his feet, and I was on him, my fist cocked back as I charged, just as I had last time.

Just like last time, Itachi caught my fist in his firm grasp.

But unlike last time, he was not expecting the slight flick of my still-wet and ruined left shoulder, which sent droplets of blood straight into his face.

Itachi shut his eyes reflexively, wincing, and in that moment, I struck. My head shot forward, but some deeply-ingrained instinct of Itachi's caused him to jerk his back out of the way.

So instead of his nose, my teeth found his ear.

I bit down as hard as I could, and viciously jerked my head back.

Itachi screamed as a large chunk of his earlobe was torn away between my jaws. The taste of hot iron filled my mouth, the sweetest of nectars, one which sated a thirst I had never felt before.

And that was when the rain began pouring down around us.

My vicious, animalistic smile, widened. I spat out the bloody chunk of flesh from my mouth, and raised my hands, preparing to attack once more.

And suddenly, just as quickly as the sudden burst of power had come, it fled, leaving me weak once more.

I fell to my knees, the pain from my wounds returning to me in a sudden burst of agony.

What… What had just…?

I looked up feeling the patter of rain on my back, the droplets sliding down my face, and saw Itachi clutching the side of his head, pink blood mixed with water spilling from the still-bleeding rag of his ear, as he stared at me with undisguised shock.

But when he took in my appearance once more, heavily breathing, almost crippled by pain, his features slowly relaxed, and he drew another kunai, moving forward a few paces while holding it up in front of himself. I could see a pronounced limp in the leg that I had raked with my claws even as he shambled forward.

I slowly rose to my feet and looked into the sky.

A storm, fueled by the still-burning flames of Amaterasu and larger than any I had ever created or even been in in the past, raged above me, lightning arcing in the air, followed by the booming clap of thunder a second later.

"Will you use that jutsu again, Sasuke?" Itachi asked. "The one you used to kill Deidara? The one you tried just minutes ago?" He shook his head. "It will not work. You cannot crush my Susanoo so easily."

I knew that he was correct. Striking that crimson warrior, the _Susanoo_, with Kirin had been ineffective last time. I had no reason to think it would work now.

Itachi smiled, and both of his eyes _twisted_. First came the skeleton, a vaguely humanoid figure lacking a bottom half. Then, muscles weaved over the bones, knitting together as skin formed over that. And finally, around it formed a cloak-like weave of ghostly armor, closing around its head and sheathing it in shadow.

I took a step back, my useless arm lolling at my side. Itachi stepped forward.

The figure was strong. The amount of power that Kirin could apply to it was limited by sheer virtue of the area over which the jutsu was distributed. That meant that simply calling down a regular Kirin would not be enough. I needed something more

Itachi took another four shambling steps. I moved as many steps back, and felt the wall behind me.

Focus, I realized. I needed to focus the power of the clouds. I needed some way to strike with the power of that entire lightning storm at once, at a single point. It was my only hope to break through his armor.

I felt a heavy weight at my back and remembered the Ame-no-Murakumo, still sheathed behind me. I reached for it, forcing my broken fingers to curl firmly around the hilt even as I bit back another stab of pain.

"You cannot win, Sasuke," Itachi said, panting now, his exhaustion plain on his face. "You cannot win… because you lack hatred."

The Sword of the Gathered Clouds of Heaven came free smoothly. I slowly raised it up to the point upwards, straight at the storm raging above us.

"Perhaps…" I whispered, my voice coming out as a hoarse croak. "Perhaps… I do lack hatred." I straightened my back, squaring my useless arm, drawing forth on every reserve of poise and dignity I had left. "But you, Itachi…"

He moved forward another step.

"You lack love."

Lightning arced from the tip of the Ame-no-Murakumo, lancing into the sky, and above us, something emerged from the clouds. A massive beast of lightning peered down at us, watching.

Then it swam back up above the clouds, my subtle manipulation of the thunderstorm moving the lightning construct, _controlling_ it.

And then, it dived, moving straight down at us. I saw Itachi stiffen from the corner of my eye, and smiled.

He wasn't the target.

The lightning beast struck the blade, and I let out a gasp as its energy flooded it, closing my eyes as I struggled to keep it under control, to _focus_ it, to hold it within the confines of the medium I had chosen to convey it.

Every cell in my body _burned_ with the effort. I noticed the sickly-sweet scent of cooking meat fill the air, and realized that the hilt of the sword was singeing my hands, slowly burning through the flesh in my palms.

I grit my teeth and fought, harder and harder, until I was certain that I could focus the power no more.

And then, I opened my eyes.

In my hand, I held a sword of pure lightning. The blade of Ame-no-Murakumo had been swallowed, hidden underneath the figure of the still-raging, yet now-small figure of Kirin, dancing along its edge.

Power. Power enough to crush my foes.

I smiled, and looked at Itachi.

Power to destroy the Susanoo.

I charged, holding the blade one-handed.

Itachi's eyes widened, and the Susanoo brought forth its shield, attempting to block my course towards its master.

I twisted, spinning around the swirling ethereal disk, and kept moving, straight forward, straight towards my goal.

Straight towards the only thing that now mattered.

Itachi grit his teeth, and the gourd in the Susanoo's hand moved down, attempting to crush me underneath its weight to protect its master.

I dove straight forward, and rolled out of the way, not stopping my headlong charge towards the fulfillment of my dearest goal.

And then, I struck, from left to right. The lightning sword clashed against the Susanoo's armor in an explosion of would have torn the blade away from my grip and me away from the ground if I had not stuck myself to both using my chakra.

The Susanoo cracked, its armor buckling under Kirin's scream as the lightning beast lashed out and slammed into it.

And along with it, I heard Ame-no-Murakumo crack as well, even its legendary blade unable to take the strain of containing a thunderstorm.

I smiled at my brother, a ruthless, inhuman smile of fulfillment. Itachi's jaw clenched.

And then, sword and warrior both _shattered_ to pieces as I broke through, continuing the swing, aiming the jagged shard of metal at Itachi's neck.

He leaned back, just an inch, and the broken edge passed a hair's breadth in front of him, disintegrating into metal dust as it passed.

A kunai was in Itachi's hand in the next instant, aimed straight for my forehead.

I released Ame-no-Murakumo's hilt, and reached around to grasp my still-limp left hand.

My still-limp left hand, which now sang the song of a thousand chirping birds.

I raised my arm, forcibly, pointing at Itachi's heart.

For a single eternal instant, we just hung there, frozen in time, looking into each other's eyes.

I knew what would happen.

Itachi's kunai would lash out, touching my skull, taking an instant longer to pierce through the hard bone than it would be if it was traveling through mere flesh. In that moment, the blade would pierce my brain, killing me instantly.

My arm, on the other hand, would cut through the hard bone on Itachi's chest, and strike directly at his heart, destroying the organ in a spray of gore and blood.

Itachi's reach was longer. These things would happen at the same moment, I knew.

A mutual kill. A draw.

I smiled.

Still better than a loss.

I closed my eyes, the faces of my friends flashing across my vision.

_Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin, Kakashi, Sakura, _Naruto_._

_Everyone… _

_I am sorry._

The sound of flesh being pierced cut through the air, and a spray of blood struck my face dripping down my jaw.

But there was no pain.

I opened my eyes, confused, and _saw_.

Itachi, smiling. His kunai was no longer in his hand. Instead, his hand was touching my forehead, two fingers out. My arm had pierced straight through his chest, and he was losing blood at an incredible rate.

But there was no fear or anger in his eyes.

He stood there, his smile unwavering, and then spoke his last words.

"Forgive me, Sasuke…"

The blood from his finger dripped down my brow, and into my my eye, pooling at the edge, and tracing its way down my cheek like a red teardrop.

"But this… is the last time…"

Then, like a puppet with its strings cut, Itachi stumbled back, sliding off of my arm with a wet crunch.

And fell, never to rise again.

**A/N:** What? You thought that I kept calling that sword Ame-no-Murakumo for no reason?.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I liked writing it.


	12. The Liar's Guide to the Truth

Chapter 11: The Liar's Guide to the Truth

I fell to my knees, the world swimming in front of my eyes.

Itachi was _dead_.

_Itachi_ was dead.

Why? Why hadn't he killed me? There had been plenty of opportunities in those last few moments, but he had made a conscious decision _not_ to do so.

_Why_?

Slowly, painstakingly, I pushed myself back to my feet with my good hand and stumbled forward. I tripped, and landed heavily, barely stopping an inch above Itachi's face.

His eyes were open, and I saw his sharingan, still activated even in death.

And that smile. That peaceful, happy smile. How could Itachi smile like that? He had been a madman, a _monster_.

But he still smiled.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. There would be enough time to worry about that later. First…

I reached back into my pouch and drew out my last soldier pill, and dropped it into my mouth.

It wouldn't keep me awake for long, I knew. It was like dropping a twig on a dying fire, but it would be enough.

Slowly and with great difficulty, I patted Itachi's clothes down, searching for what I needed. My hands brushed across something smooth and curved, and I reached inside his vest, retrieving two bottles, filled with a viscous green liquid.

I had seen similar bottles and liquids before in Orochimaru's labs. They were generally used to store dissected body parts and organic matter. If I hadn't been so exhausted, I would have smirked in victory.

With a tiny drop of chakra to stick them to the ground, twisted their lids off, one after the other.

I turned back to Itachi's still-smiling face, looking into his faded eyes, and reached forward, as he had during our battle, digging my fingers into his eye-socket and ignoring the resulting burst of pain from pressuring the broken digits.

Itachi's right eye came free with a slick pop. My stomach turned over.

I moved to drop the right eye into one of the bottles, and hesitated, drawing back.

I stared at the a long moment, contemplating even as the darkness encroached on my vision.

I could crush it, right here and now, to defy what Itachi had said about the fate of the brothers of the Uchiha. It would be a simple matter, even weakened as I was. All I needed to do was _squeeze_.

An image swam before my eyes. Itachi's last moments, his last words. The happiness… no, I realized with a shock, the _pride_ in his eyes as he had looked at me one last time.

That look brought back memories, memories I had long left hidden, memories I didn't wish to touch, but was now forced to anyways, but one memory above all others, one which had taken place… after the massacre?

I… I _hadn't _blacked out after Itachi had used his Tsukuyomi on me! I had _chased_ him!

And not just that! I had _found_ him, I had tried to _attack_ him, and when I had, he had turned around to face me.

And he had been _crying_.

Suddenly, all thoughts of crushing the eye left my mind.

I couldn't do it.

Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I reached over and dropped it into the bottle.

Then, with a deep breath, I moved my shaking hand down to the other one.

XXX

Using the last bit of my chakra, I smeared a bit more of blood on my palm, and slammed it onto the ground.

_Kuchiyose no Jutsu._

In a puff of smoke, a relatively small snake, only about as large as I was, appeared in front of me.

"Sasuke-sama?!" Aoda asked as he took in my haggard appearance and mangled arm. "Are you well?"

"I'll… I'll be fine," I panted. "More importantly… there's something I need you to do."

I pointed at the two bottles on the ground next to me. "Take those… with you," I continued, "and keep them safe. I'll be needing them… back, soon enough."

Aoda obeyed immediately. In a moment, Itachi's eyes were in his coils, and he was looking back to me.

"Sasuke-sama, will you be all right? Would you like me to take you back to Ryuuichi Cavern?" His expression was indecipherable, but I heard the worry behind his tone.

I shook my head. "Don't worry… about me…" I croaked, "I have… a healer. She'll be here… soon." I could barely speak now, exhaustion was overwhelming even that ability. Still, I managed to give Aoda a firm nod. "Go."

The snake looked like he was going to protest for a moment, but finally simply bowed his head in deference, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

And I fell to my knees and collapsed onto my back, allowing the darkness to finally take me.

The last thing I saw before falling unconscious was the space in front of me swirling like a whirlpool, revealing something dark within.

XXX

'_How very interesting you are…'_

The shadow caressed my mind, digging its claws into my soul. I felt its gentle, violating kiss on a part of me that I had always been terrified of. It was probing, _looking_ for something.

'_Yes… you… you are incredible, Uchiha Sasuke. Perhaps even greater than your predecessor.'_

Who? What…?

The shadow froze.

'_Oh? You can feel me?'_

I strained to open my lips, as if I was moving them from a great distance. "Who…" I rasped, "Who are you?"

A chuckle, one filled with genuine amusement and sardonic humor.

'_I am the one who came first, and the one who has come countless times after.'_ There was a joke there, something I instinctively knew that only the shadow understood.

I also somehow knew that that would be all that I would get out of it on that subject for now.

"What… do you want?" I whispered.

Another laugh.

'_I am interested in you, Uchiha Sasuke. I wish to help you.'_

I blinked, and even that felt sluggish.

"Why?"

The shadow shifted, giving me the impression of a soft smile.

'_You remind me of how I was in the first coming, and so I suspect that you will be the last.'_

"Stop… talking in riddles!" I somehow managed to muster up enough frustration to sound somewhat menacing.

'_Don't worry.'_

The shadow smiled, and in the darkness, and moved. I saw the glint of white bones around its throat.

But beyond that, I saw its _eyes_. Two orbs of red with black spirals running from the centers.

'_You will understand before the end.'_

And I fell into darkness once more.

XXX

When I awoke, it was to the patter of rain on the walls outside my room.

I shifted and sat up, wincing at the pain in my shoulder as I tried to move my left arm.

Glancing down, I noted the cast on the limb, and the sterile white of bedsheets, the same as the walls.

"So, you are awake." A dark voice from the corner of the room.

I turned around slowly to face it, and saw a familiar orange mask.

"Madara…" I whispered, but even then, it carried through the air between us.

The masked man cocked his head. "Oh? It seems you have discovered my identity."

I ignored his implied question and asked him one of my own. "Where are we, _Tobi_? And why have you brought me here?"

He laughed, a rich, pure sound. "Goodness. So insolent." He shook his head. "You are in Amegakure, and please, call me Madara." He paused for a moment, watching me, seeing that I hadn't dropped my guard and sighed. "You should know that I am not your enemy," he said.

I snorted. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that after our last meeting, can you?"

He shrugged carelessly. "I brought you here, I bandaged you, and I had you healed. Can you honestly call those the actions of an enemy?"

"Orochimaru would have done much the same when I was his student," I shot back.

"And he never once lied about his intentions towards you in doing so. I am the same."

His hand came up to his mask, unfastening the clasp around the back of his head. I stiffened.

"I simply wish to speak, to tell you the truth," he said, and moved the mask, exposing long lines across his face, and a single sharingan eye. "What you do after is purely up to you."

Something bubbled up within me, and my left eye suddenly activated, a stream of blood trickling down my cheek.

Madara barely had a moment to recoil in shock. "What? Itachi, he-"

And then, he was engulfed in black flames.

He screamed in pain, recoiling and dropping the mask, desperately patting at his shoulders to put out the fires of Amaterasu.

Shock coursed through me. How…

Madara rocked back on his feet and fell into the shadows, and his screams abruptly cut off.

I felt my eye, slowly, painfully twist back to normal. It felt as if a great weight had suddenly been lifted from it.

I panted, wiping away the blood still trickling down my cheek.

"What… what was that?" I asked to no one in particular.

There was only silence for a few seconds, and sighing, I turned to look back down at the sheets.

A click ran through the ground, then another, forming a steady cadence. Footsteps.

"It was the Amaterasu that Itachi implanted within you."

My eyes shot up, back to the corner of the room which Madara had disappeared into, and I saw a pair of hands reach out from the shadow to pick up the mask, and slowly move it up and fasten it once more.

"How very like him," Madara murmured, seemingly no worse for wear, even after his screaming just a few seconds earlier. "He surprises you even in death. I never expected him to have planned so far ahead…"

Itachi? Why would Itachi…

"He did it to kill me, or rather, to keep me away from you," Madara said, then stopped a few feet away from me. "He probably set it to activate when you saw my sharingan."

He looked up, and there was a hint of amused contempt in his next words. "It was most likely his fail-safe, though it didn't have much of an effect on me."

I suddenly remembered my voice at that, an odd surge of something resembling anger flaring in my breast.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I snarled.

My ancestor shrugged. "Itachi must have done something to you before he died," he remarked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I felt my jaw suddenly clench as I remembered.

"_Forgive me… Sasuke... but this is… the last time."_

Back then? Had he done it back then?

"At the very end," Madara murmured, "for your sake, the implanted the last of his powers into your body."

I grit my teeth at the sudden dread that clenched my heart in an icy grip. "Just what," I whispered, almost inaudibly, "are you trying to say?" My voice slowly grew in strength into a full-fledged growl. "Why would Itachi do something like that?!"

"You don't understand?" The Masked Man's tone was honeyed, a thin layer of false pity hiding a dark anticipation.

Anger pulsed in my heart, and I wanted to shoot back an enraged retort at that tone, but I couldn't. My mouth had gone suddenly dry, and I wasn't able to form words.

I knew. I just didn't want to acknowledge it. I couldn't _afford_ to acknowledge it, because doing so would shatter everything I believed, everything I had _accomplished_.

"It was all," Madara started, and I wanted to scream at him to _stop_, but instead found myself unable to even move my lips, "in order to protect you."

It wasn't true. It _couldn't_ be true.

"You're _lying_!" I screamed, feeling my tongue and lips finally loosen, wishing they had done so seconds before. "Itachi was a monster! He killed our clan! He killed our family! He tried to kill _me_!"

Madara laughed, and I nearly attacked him then and there, injured or not. Instead, I settled for glaring at him until his chuckles subsided.

"Despite your words, you do not seem very certain that I am," he said. I made ready to reply, my lips curling back across my teeth, but before I could, he shook his head and cut me off.

"But either way, I will convince you." He leaned back against the wall.

"Now, let me tell you the story of Uchiha Itachi, the man who sacrificed everything for the sake of his village." I saw Madara's single eye flash. "And his beloved little brother."

And he did.

XXX

And after he finished, there was only silence as a thousand little details fell into place in my mind.

I was such a _fool_.

What had Itachi told me?

_"The rightness and truth of things is an ill-defined concept. An individual's reality might turn out to be nothing more than an illusion. We all live in our own realities, fashioned from the cloth of our assumptions. Wouldn't you agree, Sasuke?"_

And despite my boasts, I had not managed to see through even a single one of Itachi's illusions.

I had called myself his equal, but even now, I had always been walking in his shadow.

I looked up at Madara, who was simply standing next to me, waiting.

"Leave," I whispered, and my voice felt dead.

The masked man simply nodded, and disappeared back into the shadows.

When he was finally gone, I put my face in my hands and wept.

And after what seemed like hours, when the tears finally stopped, I knew that my eyes had been changed irrevocably.

XXX

By the time my next visitor arrived, it had been many hours since my tears had dried.

The door opened silently, almost inaudibly, and a tall man wearing an Akatsuki robe entered. He had spiked orange hair and his face was covered in spikes, driven in through his flesh.

But beyond that, what truly drew my gaze were his _eyes_. They were purple, with concentric ripple patterns emanating from the center.

But more than that was the will behind them. It was powerful, almost inhumanly so. I shivered.

This man was dangerous.

He opened his mouth and spoke in a tone filled with… not arrogance. _Confidence_. Supreme confidence in himself and his own power.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

I looked into his eyes, trying to meet that gaze as levelly as I could.

"Who are you?" I asked.

He looked at me, unjudging, simply observing.

"I am Pain," he replied after a moment, "the leader of Akatsuki."

I stiffened, but forced myself to relax, then thought for a moment.

"What do you want?" I asked. There had to be a reason why the leader of Akatsuki would take time to speak to me.

Pain slowly walked forward and stood next to one of the chairs. He didn't sit down, nor did he lean against the wall. His back remained completely stiff, and his poise perfect.

It was entirely unnatural.

"I am here," he said, "because I have taken an interest in you, Uchiha Sasuke." He shook his head. "Madara wishes to recruit you into our organization. I agree with this idea, but for my own reasons."

I felt a hint of shock run through me, and my eyes narrowed, sharingan instinctively blazing to life as I studied his face, searching for even a hint of deception.

Nothing. There was literally nothing at all. No small twitches, no fidgeting, no tiny movements in the muscles underneath his skin.

His face was completely and utterly still.

How was that possible? Was this Pain even truly human?

I realized that he was waiting for a response.

"I attacked Madara and I killed two of your members, and you want to recruit me? Why?"

Pain nodded slowly, as if he had been expecting this question.

Which, I realized, he probably had been.

"I do not hold Itachi's death against you," Pain replied at last. "You did nothing to him that he did not wish upon himself. As for Madara… the fact that he was the one who brought you here should be proof enough that he has no true grudge, and I do not like him enough that I would hold one on his behalf anyways."

I narrowed my eyes at that, filing the information away for future reference.

"And Deidara?" I prompted.

Pain shrugged, a disturbingly human motion on his body. "Deidara's death was a major loss to Akatsuki," he admitted. "He was highly skilled, and a true asset to our organization. However, in many ways, you are capable of being far more to us than he ever was."

"Far more?" I asked. "What sort of value could I have to you? I'm not as strong as Itachi was-"

"But you will be," Pain cut me off. "I am aware of how the Uchiha gain the Mangekyo, and there is little doubt that you have now unlocked it."

There was no point in hiding it, I knew. My eyes burned as I channeled a bit more chakra into them, and _twisted_ in exquisite pain.

Pain nodded as he saw. "As I expected."

I continued to watch him impassively as I became accustomed to the burning sensation.

"That can't be your only reason," I said at last. It wasn't a question.

Pain nodded again. "You are correct. I wish you to join me because I believe that you, who has experienced the agony of losing the one person he loved more than any other by his own hand, will be able to understand, to truly _empathize_, with Akatsuki's ideals."

"Akatsuki's… ideals?"

Pain spread his arms. "Yes. Our ideals, the ideal of understanding, the ideal of _pain_."

"Pain? What does that have to do with understanding?"

The man's lips curved upwards into something that wasn't quite a smile.

"Humans," he said, "are foolish creatures. They squabble, war, and pointlessly kill one another, all in the name of their petty ideals, not caring about the trails of corpses they leave in doing so."

I remained silent.

"And what happens in the end? One man kills another. That man's friend kills the first. The dead man's siblings kill that one in turn. Ten men come together to kill those two, and on and on it goes, a destructive cycle of hatred."

"Is there a point to this?" I asked coldly.

Pain didn't seem offended, or even mildly annoyed at my interruption.

"Akatsuki's goal," he said, continuing as if I hadn't spoken, "is to end this destructive cycle, by forcing the people of this world into understanding one another."

I blinked. "Understanding?" I asked. "How is it possible to _force_ understanding?"

Pain's arms came back down to his sides. "Through mutual pain, a shared experience, one which will breed empathy among all humans. And that, Uchiha Sasuke, is why I wish you to join me."

"_Forgive me… Sasuke... but this is… the last time."_

I bit my lip.

"You understand that pain in a way few others could, in the same way that _I_ do," the leader of Akatsuki continued. "Do you not believe that if everyone in the world could feel an iota of the pain tearing through your heart right now, that they would wish to stop fighting each other, to stop causing more such hurt to those around them?"

I didn't want to, but I couldn't help but see the sense in his words. If the Elders and the Hokage… no, the entirety of Konoha had known the pain that Itachi's sacrifice would cause me… if they had been able to _feel_ it, then would the Uchiha have been forced to such a drastic course of action? Would my family have had to die?

Would monsters like Orochimaru and Kabuto have existed if they had known, on an intimate level, the suffering that their insanity caused those around them?

But still…

"I cannot join you, Pain," I said at last.

"I see." He nodded, though his face remained as expressionless as it had been throughout our conversation. "May I ask why?"

"I understand what you're saying," I said, "and I think that, perhaps, your methods might work, but even then…" I raised my hand over my chest. "I… cannot wish this sort of pain on anyone else."

Pain remained silent for a moment, then finally gave a sharp nod. "You are kind," he said at last.

"You aren't disappointed?"

Pain shook his head. "It would be a lie to say that I am not, but I am impressed, nonetheless. You are a brave man to hold such compassion, even after everything you have experienced."

I tilted my head. "I've often heard compassion referred to as a weakness," I said, remembering my time in Otogakure, and a thousand unconscious men, "but no one I have met before has ever called it _brave_."

"Compassion is no weakness," Pain replied. "It is what drives visionaries to make the world a better place, and what causes men like me to try to _save_ it. To lose one's compassion is to become nothing more than a rabid dog, a monster that must be killed for the good of all."

He paused. "However…"

He looked me in the eye then, and I felt as though the unnatural ripple-patterns were drawing me into a whirlpool at their centers.

"It is also _dangerous_."

A chill ran down my spine, and I held back the urge to swallow. There was a _weight_ to Pain's words, something I had never felt before, something which told me to heed his words.

"Take care that your compassion does not destroy you, Uchiha Sasuke. It would be truly regrettable to see one such as you unmade."

He closed his eyes for a moment, and to my surprise, respectfully inclined his head before straightening once more.

And then, he turned and left.

XXX

When my third guest walked into the room, I looked up.

He was dressed just as he had been the last time I had seen him: in his Akatsuki cloak, with his massive sword strapped to his back.

He grinned his shark-toothed grin as his eyes fell on me.

"Why hello there, Sasuke-kun. Are you doing well?"

I slowly got off of the bed, rising to my feet painfully. "Do I look particularly well, Kisame?"

He chuckled. "Certainly not. Itachi-san really did a number on you, didn't he?" He noticed me stiffen at the mention of my brother's name, and his grin widened further, the gills on his face seeming to open up as he did.

"Why are you here?" I asked frigidly.

"To talk with you, and ask a question," he said, his smile unwavering.

"I have _nothing_ to talk to you about. Ask, and leave."

Kisame just stared at me for a moment after that. Then, he burst out laughing.

"What the hell is so funny?" I snapped.

"Ahaha…" he wiped away a tear from his eye. "It's just… you're quite amusing," he said. "Acting that tough," the Samehada was suddenly pointed at my chest, and I froze. "When you're completely at my mercy," he finished.

I curled my lips, and stepped forward, until the shark-skin blade was touching my skin.

"If you honestly think," I said, "that I'm going to be _intimidated_ by you waving that sword around, then you have another thing coming."

I leaned forward, uncaring of the pain I felt as Samehada starting to shave into my skin. I felt a sudden wave of lethargy lurch through me as the blade tasted my chakra.

I didn't let it show.

After a moment, the shark-man drew the Samehada back quickly, resheathing it on his back.

My sneer twisted up into a vicious smirk. Kisame watched me for a few moments, his grin somehow growing even wider as he did so, then started laughing again, even more uproariously than before.

"Man," he gasped out from between his guffaws, "you're even crazier than Itachi-san was!"

"What do you want?" I asked again.

He sighed theatrically. "My, so impatient." When he saw me step forward again threateningly he drew back, hands held up in front of him. "It's rather simple, actually."

"Then spit it out already."

"I want to know where Itachi-san's eyes are," Kisame said.

I didn't freeze, I didn't force myself to display a carefully blank expression. Instead, I continued to channel my annoyance and anger at the reminder of my brother's name, using it to mask what I truly felt, even as I went silent.

"I crushed them." The lie was not easy, but I knew it was convincing.

"You… crushed them?" Kisame sounded surprised. "Why?"

The best lies are the ones with the barest hint of the truth. I looked back, back to what I had felt at the road I had not taken, the one I had been tempted to follow before I had remembered my brother's tears.

"To spite Itachi," I said. "I thought… I thought…" I trailed off, hands clenched at my side, unable to speak any more.

Kisame studied my face, then sighed. "You did, huh? That's a shame."

I didn't allow myself to relax. I forced myself to keep remembering, to keep feeling what I had felt when I held Itachi's eye in my hand. I couldn't stop just yet.

Finally, after a whole minute, I spoke again. "You have what you came for. Now leave."

To my surprise, there was no protest. Kisame grinned once more, nodded, and did as I asked.

And once he was gone, I finally allowed myself to sag back down onto my bed.

XXX

The door slammed open, and I sat up.

An extremely incensed Karin entered the room, Suigetsu and Juugo close on her heels. I took in their disheveled appearances, dirt-stained travel-cloaks and the water dripping off their clothes and surmised that they had only just arrived.

"Sasuke!" Karin roared. "How _dare_ you just knock me out like that!?"

I glanced at her, then lay back down. "Shut up. You're annoying."

Suigetsu brought up a hand to stifle his guffaw, and even Juugo's lips twitched up at the edges for just a moment. Karin, on the other hand suddenly looked even _more_ angry than before. Her face turned a crimson color to match the shade of her hair, and she started to roll up her sleeves.

"Saaaa-suuuuu-keeeeeeeee…"

Suigetsu's hand snaked out, and he grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Well, we all know that you've been worrying your ass off about Sasuke, bu-"

"W-who'd be w-w-worrying about t-that idiot!" Karin cried out, her glasses shining as her face turned red. "I-I'm just mad t-t-that he used genjutsu on me! There's nothing else!"

Suigetsu's grin grew wider, and Juugo actually broke out into a real smile at that.

"Well-" he started, before I cut him off.

"How did you get here?" I asked, sitting up once more and swinging my legs out over the side of the bed. After a moment of thought, I continued. "And how long has it been since we separated?"

Surprisingly, it was Juugo who answered. "A few minutes after you used that massive lightning jutsu for the second time," he started. "A strange plant-man sprouted out of the ground-"

"Kisame-senpai called him Zetsu," Suigetsu put in. I glanced at him and nodded at Juugo to continue.

"Zetsu sprouted out of the ground and told us that you had won," Juugo said, not missing a beat. "He said that you had been moved to Akatsuki's main base here in Amegakure, and warned us that the Konoha shinobi were on their way. He told us to leave and join you here as soon as possible."

I narrowed my eyes at that. The eight-man cell that Konoha had sent after me shouldn't have taken that long to reach my location, even as tired as I was.

Which meant that something, or some_one_ had delayed them. Madara, perhaps?

"And?" I asked. "How long has it been?"

"Two days," Suigetsu complained. "Karin didn't even let us _sleep_ on the way here."

I turned to her, and raised a questioning eyebrow. She blushed and looked away. I rolled my eyes internally.

"Sasuke," Juugo asked, "what happened?"

I looked down at my hands, and sighed.

"Too much."

XXX

With a sweep, I pulled on the simple black cloak around my clothes. The waves crashed against the rocks beneath me. For a while, I simply watched.

I felt a distortion behind me, but didn't turn around as Madara walked forward to join me.

"Will you go back to Konoha now?" he asked.

"No," I responded without looking over. "Konoha severed the last of its bonds with the Uchiha the day it ordered the massacre. I have no desire to reestablish them."

"Oh?" Contrary to what he said, his tone was unsurprised. "That is not what Itachi would have wanted you to do."

I felt a twinge in my left shoulder at my brother's name, and drew my left hand back through the sleeve to rest on the lapel of my cloak. The pain disappeared.

"I'm not Itachi," I said, forcing down a sudden rush of cold fury. "He may have been driven to continue serving the village after everything it made him do, but I am not so happy to protect the people who killed my family."

"Then will you attack them?" Tobi asked. "Attempt to take revenge?"

"No," I said again. "Even if I disapprove, Itachi gave his life for Konoha. I may not protect the village, but I won't sully his sacrifice by destroying it either."

"Then what will you do?" he asked, this time sounding genuinely curious.

"I…" I let out a deep breath. "I don't know."

Madara tilted his head. "I suppose you have no intention of joining Akatsuki?"

"I don't." I wouldn't follow Itachi's path. No more.

Madara hummed. "Allow me to suggest a course of action then."

I looked at him.

"Yakushi Kabuto."

I gritted my teeth. Two words that brought back a thousand memories.

"He has implanted Orochimaru's cells into his own body, and has been seen all across the Elemental Continents, no doubt gathering power. His presence has become rather troublesome for Akatsuki recently," Madara continued, seemingly uncaring of my reaction. "I believe that you are one of his targets as well, as retribution for your killing of Orochimaru. I propose you hunt him down."

"How?" I asked.

Madara nodded. "Of course, I will give you all of the information Akatsuki possesses on his movements. Other than that," he shrugged, "you found Itachi, did you not?"

I thought for a few minutes on that. No doubt, Kabuto's death would serve Madara's purpose.

But the fact remained that it would serve _my_ purpose as well. I hated loose ends, after all.

"Very well," I said at last. "I will hunt down Kabuto, and after that," my sharingan activated, and started whirling as I looked at him, "all debts between us are cleared."

Destroying the rest of Akatsuki could come later, after I had mastered my new eyes.

Madara stared at me for a long moment. He chuckled once.

And then, he was gone.

XXX

When I returned to my team, there was only one thing to be said.

"Let's go."

**A/N:** What, you thought he'd actually _return_ to Konoha? Just like that?

NOPE.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed.


	13. The Murderer's Guide to Regret

_For humans, killing is an unnatural act._

_It is a simple conclusion to draw based off of the precepts of the society we have been raised in. Even now, after generations upon generations of war, in order to turn our children into murderers, we are forced to indoctrinate them from a young age to desensitize them to the act._

_And even when those children are successful in their roles… the madness takes them at some point or another._

_We are monsters. Monsters who turn our children into new generations of monsters. We steal their innocence, force them to kill, make them into remorseless machines of destruction._

_And for what? Land? Honor?_

Ideals_?_

_What is the use of these lofty ideals in the face of our blood? What is _honoring _our ancestors in the face of a parent who is forced to watch his child die before his time?_

_Pointless. So pointless._

_Perhaps Tobirama, then, is correct when he tells his brother that the Uchiha are a clan possessed by evil. Our eyes are a blessing and a curse, granting us matchless prowess on the battlefield, but also burning the images of our _victories _into our eyes for the rest of our lives._

_And those deaths drive us mad, eventually._

_I remember them too. Every man, woman, and child I killed during the battles against the Senju. Children, whose only crime was being born on the wrong side of the conflict._

_I look back on those days with disgust now. I, too, was a monster._

_I don't know whether I have ceased to be one._

_But then, at least we Uchiha are better than men like Tobirama._

_Unlike him, when we kill, there is still remorse, there is still sadness, there is still _pain_. That keeps us human._

_Tobirama? He feels _nothing _when he ends lives. He has no respect for individuals, the sanctity of their beings. He calls us evil, but he, perhaps, is the greatest monster who walks this earth now._

_Of course, I am no better than him. I have killed just as many as Senju Tobirama, perhaps even more, in defense of similar ideals. Thus, I cannot bring myself to hate him._

_But even then, I am disturbed._

_Hashirama… I have faith in him. He is a man capable of changing the world, one whom I am able to give my trust to. I do not mind that I will not succeed him as leader of this village of ours. I care only that the world is made a better place because of it._

_With Izuna dead, there is nothing else left for me in this life._

_And then, I look at men like Tobirama, men who will undoubtedly be made leaders after the deaths of visionaries like my best friend, and I am forced to wonder._

_If monsters are given power, even in this new world that we have forged, then will anything truly change?_

- From the journal of Uchiha Madara, four weeks before his defection

Chapter 12: The Murderer's Guide to Regret

I walked into the inn, the other members of Taka close behind me. The hoods of our cloaks were drawn down low enough to hide our faces from anyone not looking directly at us, and my left arm, as usual, was drawn out of its sleeve and resting on the lapel of my shirt.

As I moved towards the innkeeper, I scanned the area around me, noting the various groups of travelers and laborers sitting at the tables. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something that nearly made me stiffen and turn to leave.

A group of three Konoha shinobi, marked by the spiral patterns on the sleeves of their shirts and their prominently-worn headbands, were loudly gesticulating at one another.

I forced my reaction down. To leave now would simply invite suspicion upon us, suspicion that I didn't need.

I could deal with them if need be, but that would also draw an unacceptable amount of attention from other forces I would prefer to avoid for a while yet.

Instead, I squared my shoulders and moved purposefully towards the innkeeper. Seeing the four of us approaching, the man looked up and gave an ingratiating smile.

"Welcome! Can I get you anything? A room, perhaps?" he asked. The expression on his face was a work of art, the perfect mix of easygoing acceptance and sturdy reliability.

Karin spoke instead of me. "No room, if you please," she said with a smile no less well-crafted than the innkeeper's own. "We still have much traveling left to do today. A meal, however, would be much appreciated."

The man nodded in return and rung up the costs. While Karin was speaking to him, I focused my attention on the ninja, trying to pick out the topic of their conversation. Unfortunately, they had already started to settle down, and their voices no longer carried around quite as much.

Karin tapped me on the shoulder. "Sasuke?" she asked in a seemingly-normal tone, though her voice was kept just low enough not to carry.

I blinked, then nodded as I noticed that she had already finished paying. I gestured towards Juugo and Suigetsu, and we started walking towards a chair near the shinobi, just close enough to hear what they were saying.

"-amn those Akatsuki! They tried to kidnap Naruto, they killed Asuma-san, and now Jiraiya-sama is also dead at their hands! I want to hunt every single one of them down and make them pay!"

I blinked. Jiraiya was dead?

The second man held up his hands placatingly. "I understand your feelings, my friend, but what can we do against someone strong enough to kill Jiraiya-sama? We're just chuunin!"

I could almost _hear_ the first man's teeth grinding, but before he could give his response, the third man laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down, brother. You're disturbing the other guests."

The first man's fists clenched together even harder than they had been before, and I heard him taking several deep breaths before he seemed to simply deflate and fall back into his chair.

"I… I'm sorry. It's just…"

The third man shook his head. "There is no need to apologize. We all feel the same, but still…"

There was a silence amongst them for a few moments. It was the second man who broke it.

"Speaking of Akatsuki… have you heard the news?"

The third man perked up. "Ah, you mean about Itachi?"

The first man glanced between them. "What about Itachi? Has that damn traitor done something else?"

I felt my jaw clench as I tried to fight down the sudden rush of fury at the man's words.

The second man grinned. "He's dead. Rumor has it that Sasuke killed him."

The first man blinked. "Sasuke? His younger brother?"

I felt my breathing quickening, and a sudden twinge of phantom pain shot through my left shoulder.

The third man nodded. "That's right. His brother, the only one he spared on the night of the massacre."

The last man barked a laugh. "Ha! Serves him right for what he did to our comrades in the Uchiha Clan!"

I felt something trickle down my hand, and realized that I had been clenching it so hard that my nails had bitten into my palm. I forced my fingers apart.

Karin touched my arm. "Sasuke…"

"I'm… fine," I whispered. "Don't worry."

I felt a mixture of fury and self-loathing churning in my gut, but more than that, there was that image playing over my eyes again.

"_Forgive me… Sasuke… But this... is the last time…"_

"Shut up," I whispered under my breath. "Shut _up_!"

"Sasuke," Karin repeated, a bit more forcefully this time. "Perhaps you should go outside for a bit?"

I took a deep breath, gave her a sharp nod, and got up.

The only person who seemed to notice my passing as I left was one very baffled waiter carrying four plates of onigiri to the table where I had just been sitting.

XXX

I had been sitting outside for nearly an hour, watching the stars begin to decorate the night sky before I heard the footsteps.

"Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked, sitting down next to me. "You alright?"

I glanced over at him, and raised an eyebrow. Suigetsu rolled his eyes in return. "Right. Stupid question."

I turned away from him and looked back up at the twinkling lights in the sky. There was a long, silent moment.

"Y'know, I had an older brother too, once," Suigetsu said suddenly. I turned back to look at him.

"Hozuki Mangetsu," I murmured. "Said to be one of the most talented ninja ever produced by the Bloody Mist. He's quite a legendary figure among the ninja from his village, the only shinobi to ever master the use of all of the Seven Swords. I've heard of him."

Suigetsu barked out a bitter laugh. "Know-it-all."

I felt my lips twitch upwards ever so slightly. Suigetsu grinned back, but his smile faded after a moment, replaced by an uncharacteristically melancholy expression.

"Mangetsu… even though we were brothers, and everyone called the both of us geniuses, he was always better than me at everything. Was kind of an asshole about it too."

"_Forgive me, Sasuke. Maybe next time."_

I winced sympathetically. "I know the feeling."

Suigetsu chuckled again before continuing.

"When the two of us were still growing, we fought and competed a lot. Mangetsu… he almost always won."

"Almost always?" I asked wryly.

"Okay, he _always_ won. Happy?"

I nodded, giving him a playful half-smile and motioned for him to continue.

Suigetsu gave me an exasperated look, but did so nonetheless.

"I didn't like him all that much, honestly. I felt overshadowed, like I could never be good enough when I was compared to him. It was worse after he became one of the Seven Swordsmen. I kept trying to live up to the standard he set, and I kept falling short."

"_Indeed, you are my son."_

"But still… when he died, it was… crushing. I… well… you get it, right?"

I looked back up at the sky. "Yeah," I murmured, "I do."

"Well…" Suigetsu sighed loudly. "I suppose what I'm trying to say here is… well… you're not alone, ya know? We're comrades, right? Don't push us away, will ya?"

I moved to nod, then paused, pondering Suigetsu's words, and smirked.

"So… _emotional_," I said in a playfully mocking voice. "Are we going to make a habit out of sitting down and pouring our hearts out to each other every week?"

Suigetsu's face turned red with embarrassment and shot to his feet. "Shaddup! If you're gonna be that way... " He spun around and started to stalk towards the door.

"Thanks, Suigetsu," I said. "I appreciate it."

He paused just as his hand was an inch away from the doorknob, but didn't say anything.

After another silent moment, he opened the door and went back inside.

XXX

It took another hour for the others to finish eating and eavesdropping, and come out. We went to the other side of town and found another inn, where we booked a room for the night.

"What did you learn? Have there been any… _incidents_ near Konoha?" I asked as we sat down.

Karin opened her mouth, then closed it. I narrowed my eyes and fixed her with a searching glare.

"Nothing." Juugo broke in.

I turned to him. "What?"

"There was nothing about any grave-robbing or large-scale kidnapping in the Land of Fire," the big man repeated.

"_Nothing_?" I hissed. "But that means…"

"Kabuto hasn't gone to Konoha yet," Suigetsu confirmed.

I closed my eyes and thought for a bit. The reasoning was obvious. As a missing-nin of the Leaf, Kabuto would probably have been far warier about showing himself there than he would have been in any other village. He was probably looking for an opportunity right now to attack.

Which meant that the logical course of action would be to lay an ambush. But then…

"Sasuke..." Karin trailed off, but didn't say anything else. She had no doubt already come to the same conclusion.

I sat there, silent for a few more moment. I didn't need to return. I didn't _want_ to return, especially not so soon after the declaration I had made just days ago. But even then, Itachi's words came back to me.

"_In the meeting hall, under the seventh tatami mat to the right…"_

I let out a long breath.

"Very well. I suppose there's only one choice."

"So then..." Suigetsu started.

I nodded in response.

"It seems we'll be going to Konoha."

The return of the prodigal son.

I smirked.

How very, very ironic.

XXX

_When I slept, I dreamed the same dream I had seen for the past several nights._

_The shadow approached, the same soft smile on its face._

"_Hello, Sasuke."_

_What do you want?_

_A laugh._

"_A question with many nuances, but a simple one to answer nonetheless."_

_The shadow spread its arms._

"_Unity."_

…

What_?_

"_I seek a world free from war, a world where children do not have to die needlessly for the petty grudges of their parents, a world where a boy is not forced to sacrifice his family to protect his younger brother."_

_... _

_Big words for a mere shadow._

_Another sound of amusement._

"Mere_ shadow? I don't believe I've ever been called that before."_

_Do you deny it?_

"_Of course not. It is quite possibly the most accurate description of myself that I have ever heard. You truly are interesting, Uchiha Sasuke."_

_A moment of silence. Then…_

_What _did_ they call you?_

_The shadow blinked, the spiraling pools of its eyes disappearing into blackness for just a moment before reappearing._

"_Oh?"_

_What did they call you? What is your name?_

_A contemplative minute._

"_My name… my name is meaningless now. There is no man alive who would remember it. But if you must…"_

_A moment of thought, then an amused flash in his unnatural eyes, as if at a joke only he could understand._

"_You may call me the Firstborn."_


	14. The Murderer's Guide to Infiltration

Chapter 13: The Murderer's Guide to Infiltration

"So, Sasuke, how're we going to get into the village?" Suigetsu asked, pacing behind me. Like me, his hood was drawn up to cover his face.

I had left Karin and Juugo behind at the outskirts of Konoha. Karin, of course, had tried to protest, until I had pointed out that a smaller party would be able to move, and, by extension, escape the village more easily if we were detected.

"Isn't it obvious?" I asked, not turning to face him. "We're going to walk in through the front gate."

Suigetsu stared for a few moments, then sighed. "Do I even wanna know?"

"It's quite simple," I explained as we moved forward. "Would Konoha expect it?"

Suigetsu blinked. "Probably not, but…"

"Of course they wouldn't. They would assume a missing-nin would go directly over the walls, or to try to disguise themselves as members of Konoha's ANBU, or take one of a variety of other options. They wouldn't expect them to simply let themselves in through the front gate."

"But how'll we get past the guards then?" It was a valid point. Konoha's gate-guards were, no doubt, trained to recognize any rogue ninja, such as myself on sight, and would also almost-certainly be capable of seeing through a henge.

I glanced back, and for just a moment, my eyes flashed red.

"Leave them to me."

XXX

Placing both of the guards under a minor genjutsu hadn't been difficult. All it had involved was a glance into their eyes, and they had been under my power.

It wouldn't last for a particularly long time, but a few hours was all I truly needed.

And now, we walked through the streets, both of us under henge. I watched the familiar, yet unknown scenery pass around me, drinking in sights and sounds I hadn't seen for three whole years, _remembering_.

The small restaurant which Team 7 had visited after each successive mission to catch Tora the cat, the bridge where we had met, and spent hours waiting for Kakashi on, every morning, and so many other nostalgic places.

But there were also things that were different. A food stall which I had visited every week to purchase my groceries had disappeared, the apartment building where I had lived after the massacre, and the subsequent opening of the Uchiha district to new settlement, had been expanded and repainted, and most importantly, there were now five faces looking down upon the village from the Hokage monument, rather than the four that stood so clearly in my memories.

"This place has changed a lot…" I whispered. "But it's still the same as ever."

"Sasuke?" Suigetsu murmured behind me, so low that only I would be able to hear him.

"It's… nothing," I responded a moment later.

Even if I had steeled my resolve, even if I had decided not to serve the Leaf any longer, this village was still my birthplace.

It seemed that even I was still capable of being sentimental, even if it was only so that I could further my convictions.

I drew my cloak more tightly around myself, as if to prevent the sights from penetrating my defenses.

"Let's go."

XXX

"So this is it?" Suigetsu asked, staring at the massive stone slab that had been unveiled after I had removed the tatami mat.

I didn't respond, instead moving through a series of hand-seals, and slapping my palms together. A moment later, the massive stone tablet began to float upwards, revealing a set of stairs underneath.

"Oh? So you have to use a jutsu to remove the entry stone?"

I glanced back at Suigetsu, and gestured.

"Come on."

We descended into the earth.

XXX

"So what is this place, Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked as we kept walking down.

"It is - was - the secret meeting place of the Uchiha Clan. Itachi told me about it the day of the massacre.

"And?" Suigetsu asked. "Why are we here?"

We arrived at the end of the stairs, and I pointed forward.

"For _that_."

Suigetsu looked over and frowned. "A blank stone tablet? How does that matter?"

I shook my head. "Not just any stone tablet. The secrets of the sharingan and of the Uchiha Clan are inscribed upon its surface."

Suigetsu blinked. "There doesn't seem to be anything written there…"

"Only those with the sharingan can read it," I responded.

Then I took a deep breath, and, activating my eyes, started.

"For those who come here, know this: the true power of the Uchiha can only be gained through great sacrifice. It is only through the death of one's closest friend that one might obtain the illuminating light of the kaleidoscope, and with it, the power to control the bijuu."

"Well," Suigetsu muttered, "that's not ominous at all, is it?"

I ignored him and channeled more chakra. My eyes _twisted_, something right on the edge between pain and pleasure. I continued reading.

"For those who have taken the new light, know this: the power of the Uchiha is impermanence itself. Though you have gained strength, it is an ephemeral one, for while the light of the kaleidoscope burns more brightly than the mirror, it also inevitably burns out.

And yet, there is a way to stop this, to make its brilliance permanent. To do so, all one must do is take the light of another and make it one's own.

For while two in harmony are great, know that none can stand above one in perfection."

The world suddenly stopped. Suigetsu's mouth seemed to open, but nothing came out.

And I was sucked into the darkness.

XXX

I awakened in a familiar place. The land of black shadow, where _he_ took me whenever I slept.

"Hello, Sasuke."

I turned around, and saw him: the Firstborn. His features were more defined now, the shadows revealing a handsome, strong face with aristocratic features, and long, styled hair. His eyes, though, were as terrifyingly unnatural as always.

"How have you called me here?" I asked, noting that it wasn't just him that seemed more real. The world itself was more defined around me, as if what I had been seeing before was nothing more than an illusion. The darkness was clearer, more well-defined.

Once again, I heard the same familiar glint of amusement in his voice as he responded.

"This place? This is your mind, Sasuke, or rather, the piece of it where I am best-defined. You have not gone anywhere."

"You know what I mean. Stop playing games."

He sighed. "As impatient as ever, I see." Noticing me glaring at him at that, he raised his hands placatingly. "It is through the closeness of our wills."

"Our… wills?"

The Firstborn nodded. "Indeed. As your heart comes closer to mine, as our beliefs and feelings become one, my powers grow, both in how I can bring you here, and in how much of it I can grant you. Though…" he trailed off, almost sounding uncertain.

"What?"

The Firstborn sighed. "You are unique. Even my previous transmigrant was unable to synchronize with me to the point where he could speak to me directly, as you are. Within him, I was nothing more than an ill-defined mass of chakra, barely sapient, incognizant. My emotions influenced his instincts, and my chakra granted him power, but both did very little beyond that."

I blinked. "Unique? How?"

"You and I are already extraordinarily similar. Normally, when undirected, my chakra unconsciously works to bring me and my current transmigrant closer together, but you started so far down that path that I manifested with the ability to speak to you."

I opened my mouth to ask him another question, but before I could, he cut me off.

"There are more important matters than this which we must discuss," he said, shaking his head. "It is about that stone tablet."

"The tablet?" I asked. It had seem relatively clear-cut to me.

The Firstborn nodded gravely. "It has been tampered with."

I blinked. "Tampered with?"

"The original text was both a set of instructions and a warning about the costs of the true power of the Uchiha. This one, however, has removed the warning and added _encouragement_."

"What do you mean?"

The Firstborn closed his whirlpool eyes for a moment as if in contemplation, then opened them.

"For those who come here," he started, "know this: the power of the Uchiha can only be gained by those who have known great loss. It is through the death of one's closest friend that one might obtain the illuminating light of the kaleidoscope, and with it, the power to control the bijuu.

This kaleidoscope is cursed, for it is granted by great sacrifice, and will eventually burn out. Yet, it is also blessed, for it is through its power that further such sacrifices may be averted."

"That was what those with only the base form of the sharingan could see?" I confirmed.

"Yes. And the second line…"

"What was it?" I asked.

"For those who have taken the new light, know this: the power of the Uchiha is impermanence itself. Though you have gained strength, it is an ephemeral one, for while the light of the kaleidoscope burns more brightly than the mirror, it also inevitably burns out. Its flame must be used sparingly.

And yet, there is a way to stop this, to make its brilliance permanent. This too, however, requires a great sacrifice: the sacrifice of another's light.

But this also has a cost, for in the end, two in harmony shall always stand above one in perfection."

I compared the old text to the new in my mind and frowned. The conclusion was obvious.

"Someone was trying to manipulate us, to manipulate the Uchiha into gaining greater power. But why?" I thought for a moment, before adding another question. "And how do you even know this?"

My tenant shook his head. "I do not know why someone would seek to do this, but it angers me nonetheless." He paused for a moment, as if in contemplation, the continued. "As for _how_ I know... that is not important right now. Suffice to say, I did read the original, the day after it was inscribed, in fact."

For some reason, I believed him. His words rang of the truth.

I thought for a few moments, then shook my head. "Either way, this doesn't matter right now."

Surprisingly, the shadow nodded in acquiescence. "Indeed. There will be time to discuss this later." He raised his hand. "I will send you back."

The shadows coiled around me, removing the world from my sight, but just before I disappeared, I heard him speak one last time.

"You must leave this place soon, Sasuke."

And with that, I awakened.

XXX

"... ke? Sasuke?"

I shook my head, feeling a hand on my shoulder and turned around to face Suigetsu.

"What is it?"

Suigetsu tilted his head quizzically. "You just seemed to space out for a moment there, Sasuke. That's not like you."

"It was… nothing," I said after a short pause. "Just a moment."

Suigetsu shot me a searching glance, but I kept my face carefully composed. Finally, he looked away and sighed.

"But still… we came all this way, and learned so little. Was this really worth it?"

I didn't respond, instead turning around and moving towards the exit.

"Let's go."

XXX

As we emerged from the shrine, Suigetsu spoke up.

"Hey, Sasuke. I have a question."

I glanced over my shoulder. "What is it?"

"That tablet… how is it possible to create something that can only be seen by the sharingan?" he asked.

I said nothing for a whole minute, deep in thought, before finally shrugging. "I'm not sure. All I know is that my eyes grant me a different perception of the world."

"Different perception?"

"I can see chakra, copy jutsu, predict people's movements before they even start moving, but more than all of that… I never forget," I said.

I looked up to the sky. "Can you imagine what it's like, Suigetsu? To never lose the memory of anything you've done, from the smallest happiness to the greatest sorrow? To see your entire life flash before you every time you close your eyes, for the emotions associated with that life to never weaken, to never break?"

Suigetsu was watching me, intent, and unusually quiet.

"It's a curse," I said, "but…"

"But it's also a gift, isn't it, Sasuke?" a familiar, third voice broke in.

Suigetsu and I froze. I knew that voice.

"For example," it continued in that same careless, dry, _familiar_ inflection. "I can remember something rather similar to this happening three years ago: an incident when a rogue ninja of the Uchiha clan infiltrated Konoha alongside his partner, a wielder of one of the Seven Swords of the Mist."

"Though I wasn't there with you last time, was I?" a second voice responded playfully.

"That's true. It's nice to see two of my cute little students all grown up in front of me," the voice responded in a tone of heavily-exaggerated pride.

I sighed and turned around, dispelling the henge.

"Hello Kakashi, Sakura." I glanced around but didn't see anyone else. "Where's Naruto?"

Sakura smiled. "So it really _is_ you, Sasuke-kun."

I didn't react, keeping my face as level as possible. "You didn't answer my question."

Kakashi snapped his ever-present Icha Icha novel shut, tucking it away out of sight into his pouch, and raised his hands in a mock-placating gesture. "Maa. Naruto isn't in the village right now. He's out on special training." He paused, seeming to think for a moment, then continued. "After he finishes it, he'll probably be even stronger than you are, Sasuke."

I snorted. "That idiot? Stronger than me? Don't be ridiculous."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Sasuke-kun. Naruto's grown a lot since the last time we saw each other," Sakura broke in, "and the way he put it, the next time he sees you he's going to 'Kick the bastardry right outta your stupid ass.'"

I raised an eyebrow. "And you actually think he can?"

She shrugged. "Well, he's been training really hard, so…"

I blinked. "Since when do you have more faith in Naruto's strength than mine, Sakura?"

She shook her head. "I've changed, Sasuke-kun. I'm not the same weak little girl who you two had to constantly protect all those years ago."

I made a show of looking her over, feeling the beginnings of a smile, and quickly converted it to a mocking smirk. "Changed? How, exactly? You look the same as ever to my eyes."

The smile Sakura gave in response was sweet, but mixed with a terrifying sort of promise.

And then, she knelt and punched the ground.

The earth cracked, broke and _shattered_ to pieces, a massive fissure racing along the ground to my position. I reacted as quickly as I could, leaping backwards and landing on top of a nearby utility pole.

"Hey, Sakura what are y-"

I didn't have a chance to get past that, since by then, she had already darted forward and driven her chakra-enhanced fist _into_ the metal rod.

I felt a shockwave, a reverberation running through the metal, my foot still stuck to its surface with chakra.

And then, I was _hurled_ backwards, varely detaching myself from the jagged shard of metal that was the largest piece that remained of the pole I had been standing on, flung almost sixty feet through the air. I felt the air rushing past my face, and barely managed to right myself in time to land on my side, tumbling another ten or so feet before I stopped on my back.

I tried to move quickly, rising to sit up, but Sakura was already there, chakra running down her arms as she brought her fist down at me in the coup-de-grace.

I reacted on instinct, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her arm aside so that it struck the earth a full half-meter away from me, feeling the shock as the ground cratered beneath it.

Sakura grinned and drew back her other arm.

I clicked my tongue. Only one thing to do now.

Reaching around my former teammate's waist, I grabbed her and pulled her down bodily on top of me, breaking her balance and removing any room she had to move positioning my forehead in an attempt to bring it crashing into her nose.

She reacted faster, and instead, her forehead met mine. Stars rung out in front of my vision, but I grit my teeth and pressed forward. Sakura's smirk was almost animalistic, her lips drawn back to reveal her own teeth.

"What… are you… doing… you idiot?" I got out between my struggles to push her off of me. "Trying… to kill… me?"

"You… wanted to see… my strength… didn't you?" she responded in kind. Our noses were inches apart, and I was staring directly into her green eyes.

I activated my sharingan, but as the red started to bleed into my vision, Sakura's gaze immediately shot up to my forehead, preventing me from placing her under genjutsu.

And then, just as I was about to channel chakra throughout my body to activate the Chidori Nagashi, a voice spoke up.

"Well that's enough, children. I know kids like you get the urge to flirt from time to time, but we wouldn't want it to go that far too quickly, would we?"

I blinked, and suddenly realized how close the two of us were. Our noses were almost touching, our mouths inches apart. I was clutching her waist tightly with one arm, holding her close to my body.

From an outsider's perspective, it would probably appear that we were about to kiss.

Sakura seemed to notice a moment later and her face turned crimson before she jerked back, trying to pull away from me.

Unfortunately, I hadn't slackened my grip around her body, and instead of pulling us apart, her head move back, then jolted forward and smacked into my nose.

I grunted, more in shock than pain, and released her. She pulled away as if burned.

"K-Kakashi-sensei! We aren't like that!"

Suigetsu walked up behind me and offered me his hand. I ignored it and got to my feet, brushing off my clothes. He rolled his eyes, sighed and leaned in to whisper in my ear.

"Sasuke," he murmured, "I know you used to be friends with them, but aren't you lowering your guard a bit too much?"

I opened my mouth to protest, then snapped it shut a moment later.

He was right. I _was_ lowering my guard.

I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth in annoyance. It seemed that even now, after everything had happened, despite my own resolve, I still had difficulty seeing Kakashi and Sakura as anything other than my friends.

I forced myself to calm down, to remove all feeling from my features, and turned to face the two of them once more.

Kakashi still seemed to be trying to calm down a furiously blushing Sakura, his hands raised placatingly even as he continued to smile at her.

Eventually, she seemed to calm down, and he turned back to me, opening his mouth.

I spoke before he could in a voice devoid of emotion.

"How did you find me?"

Kakashi's single visible eye blinked, and narrowed for just an instant before returning to its normal, half-lidded state. He shrugged. "A coincidence, actually. We just happened to be in the area when we noticed two strange outsiders entering the Naka Shrine. No one has been in there since you left the village, you know. It's been widely viewed as a sort of memorial to the deceased Uchiha." His eye crinkled back down into that unique smile of his. "And of course, being the good citizens that we were, we decided to follow you."

Sakura snorted. "I wouldn't call it 'following' exactly. We couldn't get in through that massive stone you lifted with the jutsu. By the time you started forming the seals, it was too late for Kakashi-sensei to try to copy them. And so..."

"And so, you waited out here for us to come out," I finished icily. "You really are annoying."

Sakura blinked, fixing me with a searching stare. "Sasuke-kun?"

I turned away from her to face Kakashi, ignoring the unspoken question. "Is that all you wanted?"

This time, when his eye narrowed, it stayed that way. It seemed that he had finally realized that something was wrong.

But still, when he spoke, it was in as careless a tone as ever. "I suppose I'm curious, but what were you doing down there anyways? Underneath that stone?"

I stared at him silently. I was under no obligation to answer that question.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura repeated. "What's wrong?" She tried to step forward, but Kakashi held out an arm, preventing her from moving closer.

"Sasuke…" he started. "Have you truly returned to us? Or…" he trailed off.

I didn't respond, forcing my countenance to remain blank, refusing to let them see anything.

They remained silent as well, watching me carefully, trying to gauge my reaction. There was a long, tense moment, broken only by the distant chatter of the crowd on the street.

My hand twitched, and I felt the weight of my sword, hidden up the sleeve of my traveling coat.

Sakura would be easy to defeat, I knew. She had caught me off guard before, but I was prepared now, and this time the element of surprise would be on _my_ side. All I would need was one look in her eyes, and she would be under my genjutsu.

Kakashi was the real problem. He was one of the most skilled jounin of Konoha, already, no doubt, in the running to be Hokage, and a man who had mastered the sharingan past the point many natural users attained in their lifetimes. I was under no illusions of gaining an easy victory fighting him.

And what was more, I would have to defeat him quickly. The more I lingered, the more Konoha-nin would arrive and cut off my escape route.

If worst came worst, I knew that I would be able to incapacitate him with the Mangekyo, but that would also tire me to the point where dealing with any reinforcements would become even more difficult.

Which meant that the element of my surprise would be my only ally here.

I tensed, preparing to pounce, my sword ready to be released with a single twitch of my wrist…

And suddenly froze as I felt it. An itch at the back of my neck, a familiar sensation, a familiar _chakra_. Cold, thick, and filled with pure _power_.

I blinked, my former comrades forgotten, and turned away to face the village, trying to remember where I had felt this sensation before. It had been recent, I knew...

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura ventured. "What-"

It came to me in a flash, just as I saw a massive, multi-headed dog crash out _through_ the buildings in the distance, followed by a chameleon and an ox, destroying the structures as tiny shinobi desperately tried to stop them.

Kakashi and Sakura shifted, and I saw them staring at the devastation that those beasts wrought.

But that was not what truly claimed my attention. I stared into the sky, my sharingan already unconsciously activated.

A figure floated there, a god looking down upon the puny mortals beneath him. A man with orange hair, strange metal rods driven into his cold, dead face.

But more than that, more than anything else, even at this distance, what I saw were those same, familiar, _unnatural_ ripple-patterned eyes.

"What… is that?" I heard Sakura ask.

And I whispered his name, not in an answer, but an affirmation to myself of the image before my eyes.

"Pain."


	15. The Murderer's Guide to Poor Choices

Chapter 14: The Murderer's Guide to Poor Choices

In an instant, I felt a spike as five new chakra sources made themselves known, leaping down from a nearby rooftops and behind the wall around the Naka Shrine.

Yamato and Sai I instantly recognized from my past encounters with them. Yamato had a grim look on his face, while Sai's didn't even seem to twitch as he looked to Kakashi.

The other three took a moment longer, but I soon realized who they were as well.

Team Ten. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji. All three of them with an identical, serious mien hanging around them.

I felt Suigetsu stiffen behind me and began to draw my sword, before stopping myself. I bit my lip, cursing internally. It had been foolish to assume that Kakashi wouldn't have called for backup while Suigetsu and I were under the shrine. No doubt he had decided to first approach me directly before attempting a capture, reasoning that I may have been willing to return of my own free will.

And my carelessness had nearly led to me and Suigetsu being captured.

"Kakashi-senpai," I heard Yamato start, and quickly rose out of my self-recrimination to listen in. "What should we do?" he asked, with a pointed glance in my direction.

Kakashi either didn't hear or chose to ignore him, keeping his gaze fixed on me. Even the destruction being wrought on the village didn't seem to draw his attention.

"Sasuke," he asked quietly, "how do you know that name? Did you hear it from Orochimaru?"

I gave him a look devoid of expression. "Do you really have time to be asking questions?"

Shikamaru clicked his tongue. "Tch. He's right." He turned to Kakashi, just as another tremor ran through the ground. "We can figure this out later. We have to move, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi didn't turn away from me, even as he slowly nodded. "Very well. All of you, go ahead and engage the enemy. I'll join you soon."

Sakura looked like she was about to protest, but a quick, sharp look from our sensei shut her up. The team nodded as one, then disappeared.

Then we were alone.

I watched Kakashi carefully. He returned my gaze with a searching, penetrating narrowing of his eyes, as if he was trying to look through me.

"Sasuke," he said after what seemed to be an eternity. "Will you help us?"

I didn't hesitate in my response. "Why should I? I'm a missing-nin, in case you've forgotten."

There was another short pause, then he sighed, moving his eyes away. "I expected as much." He looked back up at me. "I can tell that something has changed since we last saw each other, Sasuke. If you aren't willing to help us, then I can't force you. Just… I wanted to let you know."

My teacher took a deep breath.

"Naruto and Sakura haven't given up on you, and I… I haven't either. I still hope that one day..." he trailed off and chuckled. "Well, you know."

I didn't respond, just continuing to watch him for another long moment.

The ground shook again, and Kakashi sighed, turning away.

"You'll die," I said suddenly, the words torn from my lips as if by some unseen force.

He stopped and looked back at me. "What?"

"If you face him, you'll die," I repeated. "He's too strong for you to defeat."

Kakashi blinked and studied me carefully. I wasn't sure what sort of expression I was wearing, what sort of air I was projecting.

I wasn't even sure why I had spoken.

It had simply felt wrong to just let him go like that, without saying _anything_.

He just looked at me for another short, silent second, then shook his head. "I know. That man killed Jiraiya-sama. Defeating him is beyond me."

"Then why?" I asked, my voice slowly rising. "Why are you still going, even if you already know that?"

"To protect the village, and to protect its people. If my life can save even one of them…"

"And what makes this place so worth protecting?" I snarled, blinded by a sudden rush of fury. "Why do you care so damn much about the village? What's so _special_ about it?"

Kakashi blinked, then smiled. Not the amused one he usually wore when gently mocking those around him, but an honest, pure expression of contentment.

"It is my home, the place where Naruto and Sakura are, and the place I hope you will return to someday, Sasuke. What more reason do I need?"

I froze, feeling my eyes widen and my throat go suddenly dry as the anger fled just as abruptly as it had arrived. I opened my mouth to respond, to reject, to say _anything_.

But I couldn't.

Kakashi just kept looking at me for a moment longer, then turned and leapt away. My hand jerked forward unconsciously, as if to try and stop him, before falling back to my side.

_What… what was… _

The ground shook once more, and the spell broke.

"Sasuke!" Suigetsu called out. "What do we do?"

I stared at Kakashi's retreating form, watching as he flickered between the rooftops on the way to the battlefield.

"We…" I started.

I tried to tell myself that we had to leave him. I tried to tell myself that I wouldn't have another opportunity to simply walk out of the village, that if I stayed now, leaving later would become incredibly difficult.

I tried to tell myself that I didn't care about Kakashi or Sakura any longer, that I didn't need to protect them, that I wasn't _obligated_ to after what the village had done to my clan.

I tried to tell myself that just like Kakashi, I was no match for Pain, that if I joined in the battle, I would most likely die.

I tried… and I failed.

I felt my teeth gnash together in frustration.

_Damn it all!_

"We…" I said, afraid to say the words, but knowing, on some deep, immutable level that I _had_ to, that there was no way that I could _not_ do this.

"Sasuke?" Suigetsu asked.

I turned to him, and gave him a bitter smile.

"We will help them."

XXX

"Sasuke, what should we do?" Suigetsu asked as we navigated the rooftops.

I didn't respond, instead closing my eyes and feeling through my environment, searching. Filtering out all of the chakra from the animals, I noticed an oddity.

Pain's chakra was somehow in multiple places at once, though six of them were especially large.

I focused on them.

Three of those chakras were attacking the people and buildings around them, seemingly at random, three others were simply moving stealthily from point to point, quickly flitting a large distance, then stopping for a short while, and moving along a moment later.

My eyes snapped open. "Go and get Karin and Juugo," I said.

"And you?" I heard the protest in his tone, even if it wasn't obvious from his words.

"There's something I have to look into."

"Sasuke, you can't just-"

"_Go._"

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but finally clenched his jaw and broke away.

I continued moving in the direction of my new target.

A moment later, I saw him. A long-haired man wearing a casual, seemingly-callous, yet also fundamentally _dead_ grin. There were black spikes driven into his face, and he had familiar ripple-patterned eyes.

He was standing over a kneeling Konoha ninja, his hand on his head. The ninja in question appeared oblivious to the world around him, a thin line of drool running from his mouth as he stared up at his captor.

The long-haired man hadn't noticed me yet, and so, I leapt at him silently, drawing my sword with one hand, my other flashing out and sending a rain of chidori senbon at him.

He spun and bent over backwards, pulling something amorphous, yet vaguely human-shaped out of the shinobi whose head he had been grasping just a moment before.

The shinobi collapsed like a sack of potatoes just as I slashed out with my Kusanagi, numbing lightning playing on the edge, attempting to strike him non-lethally and use the Raiton chakra to hold him still while doing so.

But before my strike could cleave into his upper arm, something long and black shot out of his sleave, coming up into the path of my blade.

There was a clang, and my sword stopped as if it had hit a rock wall. I felt a jarring sensation run up my forearm.

I didn't allow myself time to be surprised. Instead, I lashed out with my other hand, lightning playing over my fist as I attempted to run the current through his body.

He caught me by the wrist, expression unwavering, but I noticed a flash of comprehension behind his eyes before I brought my foot up, attempting to kick one of his out from under him.

Unfortunately, he had apparently had the same idea. I felt a thump as his own foot met mine in midair, then stamped back into the ground as we stepped into each other.

Chest-to-chest we stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and my sharingan began to spin as I wove a genjutsu over him. However, I was interrupted by a sudden feeling of _tearing_ in the wrist he had caught.

My gaze shot to my arm, and it took me a moment to process what I was seeing. The man was still grasping my hand, or rather, something blue, and with my chakra flowing through it that looked like my hand, and was where my hand should have been.

The appendage itself, conversely, was flopping uselessly underneath that strange, ethereal reflection, completely dead.

The man _pulled_, and the tearing sensation intensified as the more of the blue substance was ripped out of my body. My entire forearm went dead, flopping down as the man continued grasping it.

My eyes widened as I realized, on some fundamental level, what he was doing.

He was pulling my soul out of my body.

I reacted instinctually, reaching for the chakra still crackling through my sword and pulled it back into my hand. With a quick manipulation, I spread it into my limbs, pushing it out all around me.

_Chidori Nagashi!_

There was only enough chakra left to use the jutsu for an instant, but that was all I needed.

The long-haired man's body jerked as the electrical current ran through him, stealing away control from his body, and his grip on the strange black metal rod he was using to block my sword slackened.

My blade came up, and slashed down at the hand that was holding the soul in his grip. The man seemed to regain control just as the blade began its descent, and he tried to pull his hand away, and I felt the tearing sensation intensify.

He wasn't fast enough. The bloody stumps of his fingers flew through the air as he flipped backwards to a safe distance away from me.

I stood there, panting, leaning on my sword, and feeling the pricking sensation of a thousand needles running up my arm as my soul began to reintegrate itself into my body.

It seemed that keeping my distance and not touching him directly would be for the best while fighting him.

I turned to my opponent and studied his expression. It was completely unchanged, not a hint of anything showing through despite the blood still dripping from where the fingers of his right hand had once been.

The man tilted his head and spoke.

"Uchiha Sasuke… Why are you here? Why are you protecting Konoha?"

In that moment, I knew, without a shadow of doubt, that this was the same man I had met in Amegakure two weeks ago.

The differences in his appearance meant nothing before that powerful, unmistakable voice.

"What does it matter to you, Pain?" I responded evenly.

He tilted his head, but didn't speak. that fixed, dead grin on his face providing an eery contrast to the weight of his next words.

"I suppose that it does not."

Then, he charged. My sword was up in an instant, knocking the first of those black metal rods he sent my way out of the air. The second one, I casually reached out and caught in my free hand, then used it to strike the third away, then flung it back.

Pain reached out with his hand, and as the rod struck him, his skin seemed to _ripple_, and it was reabsorbed into his body.

I smirked, and Raiton chakra played over the tips of the fingers of my hand, still outstretched from the return throw.

And just as Pain was nearly close enough to strike, a spear of lightning shot from that hand, piercing him through his shoulder. Before he could react to this, I made a slashing movement with my hand, and tore the lightning spear out of his body, nearly taking his arm off with it.

I darted forward, intending to end the battle as quickly as possible, sword slashing out at the man's neck, as he was still reeling back.

And suddenly, Pain had fallen down on his good arm, using it to prop himself up as his foot lashed out in an impromptu kick which smacked into my face.

I reeled back, and then, Pain was up again, another kick catching me in the chest, and sending me flying backwards, tumbling to strike painfully into the wall of a nearby building, but even as I flew, my hands had already come up into a single handseal. I breathed, channeling my chakra.

Before I could get up, he was on me, his useless arm still flopping at his side as his other stretched out towards my head.

I blew out, a massive fireball emerging from my mouth. Pain spun to the side, just barely dodging, his robe singed by the blast even as he disengaged and leapt back.

I was on my feet in a moment, stuck my sword into the ground, and formed another handseal.

_Katon: Hosenka no jutsu_

I spat out four more fireballs which trailed ozone through the air as they flew straight at him. He leapt, spun, and weaved around them, those black rods flashing out to bat them out of the air.

The fireballs disappeared, revealing the dozens of spinning shuriken within. I smiled and gave a deliberate tug at the strands of ninja wire still attached to my fingers.

The shuriken spun around and came racing at Pain from behind.

He whirled and spun, casually batting the projectiles aside in a whirling mass of steel and black metal. I moved my fingers, adjusting the strings ever so slightly, moving them to just the right positions.

Then my other hand shot out as I conjured up more shuriken into it from the seal on my wrist. Dozens more projectiles flew through the air striking the already-airborne ones even as they did, sending them flying around in random patterns, even as I continued to manipulate the strings, gently twitching and pulling, forcing the metal stars into the patterns I required.

It was a storm of clashing metal and sparks. Despite his crippled arm, Pain did not seem to be having any trouble blocking every shuriken I sent his way. I saw the ghostly images of his movements even before he made them, along with the flight paths of the projectiles, both my own and the ones he flung out to counter them.

It was truly incredible. One of his arms was crippled, and yet, he was still so fast that he could block every single incoming attack with ease. I could see why he was Akatsuki's leader: his raw speed alone placed him in a completely different tier from Itachi.

But it wasn't good enough.

My smirk widened as the last of my original shuriken, still attached to the cords of ninja wire on my fingers, reached the points where I needed them.

And then, I pulled my hand back.

The twelve wires tautened at once, and all of them came straight back at me in a slingshot movement, wrapping around Pain's arms and body, freezing his movements.

I flung one last shuriken, then my other hand came up in a single seal.

_Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu._

The dragon shaped flame I blew out this time struck the wires, melded with them, then raced along their lengths straight towards Pain at blinding speed.

The corners of my lips perked up in the beginnings of a victorious smile. Not even _he_ would be able to dodge this one.

But just as that thought crossed my mind, I felt _it_.

A chakra directly behind me, identical to the one before.

I didn't stop to think, immediately dropping to one knee as another figure in an Akatsuki cloak sailed over my head, leg barely missing the back of my skull, flipped over and and grabbed the bundle of wires with one hand.

I stared, not understanding, what he was trying to do. He would simply be-

The flames on the wire disappeared, absorbed into the newcomer's body and disappearing as if they had never existed.

As quickly as I could, I pulled my sword out of the ground and severed the wires still connecting me to the newcomer, then leapt backwards, putting some distance between us to take in the his appearance.

He was a larger man, the expression on his face could have been described as serious, if it had not been so disturbingly corpse-like. His face was round, and his hair was short and neatly combed back across his head.

He also had dozens of metal rods driven through his face, just like the other two Pains I had seen.

I grit my teeth.

One of the Pains was able to kill me with a touch in Taijutsu. The other could absorb ninjutsu. Both of them were faster than me.

I was at a massive disadvantage here.

That thought had barely crossed my mind before the long-haired Pain ducked and _charged_.

In a heartbeat, my sword was back up my sleeve. I bit my thumb and leapt straight backwards, flashing through the seals, and made a slapping motion downwards.

A massive keening hawk appeared in a burst of smoke.

"Take us up, Garuda!" I called.

With a shriek, he flapped his wings. A gust of wind buffeted the clearing, slowing the still charging long-haired man just long enough to allow us to gain height.

The body leapt up, flinging a dozen of the black rods straight at the hawk. Instead of trying to dodge, Garuda lashed out with his talons, using the wicked sharp nails at the end to deflect the projectiles.

One struck his underbelly, but the metal rod was nothing more than a pinprick to his massive form.

Beneath me, I watched the long-haired Pain drop back to the ground, landing gracefully, and staring up after me.

I smirked, and turned back around, ready to direct my summon to somewhere I would be able to regroup and formulate a strategy.

A massive force struck us. I heard the sickening crunch of bone breaking, and Garuda jolted in midair, letting out a screech of agony.

Barely clutching to the bird's skin with the chakra I was channeling through my feet, I spun around to see a small woman with ripple-patterned eyes crouched atop a massive, _flying_ ox.

It had somehow leapt up into the air, and rammed into Garuda's wing, snapping the appendage and sending us plummeting to the floor.

I clumsily launched off of Garuda and dispelled him with a thought. He disappeared in a burst of smoke, even as I recovered in midair and smoothly flipped back, touching the seal on my wrist.

The Pain was already airborne, directly above me.

As I came around, I flung the summoned fuuma shuriken straight at her.

She lowered her head and grasped her feet, gracefully tucking into a ball and letting the projectile go spinning over her head, then spreading out once more.

In a flash, my other hand came up, six more kunai streaking directly at her.

A slight shift of her center of balance in midair sent four streaking over her shoulder. Black metal rods growing from her hands deflected the other two.

The four that had sailed past her impacted on the fuuma shuriken with near-unnoticeable clang. Two of them sailed out and embedded themselves in the eyes of her ox summon, still leaping after me.

The other two were deflected straight back towards Pain, one to the base of her neck, and the other into the back of her skull, straight into her blind spots.

I allowed the corners of my lips to perk up once more, certain that I had her.

She moved her head, tilting it to the right.

The attack sailed right over her shoulder.

_What? How did she…_

But I didn't have time to contemplate that as the body brought its hand up, about to slam it down in a gesture I recognized as the last stage of a summoning.

I felt a sudden rush of desperation. If she completed the jutsu, and succeeded in calling another massive animal like that ox, I would be crushed underfoot as we fell to the ground.

So I did the only thing I could do.

I pulled on the piece of ninja wire attached to my wrist, disguising the motion by also bringing my hand up to my mouth in a seal, as if to form another fireball.

The fuuma shuriken, still suspended in midair behind Pain, shot backwards, directly at her back.

I expected her to dodge. I expected her to duck once more, moving out of the way of the projectile immediately. I expected to gain another second at most.

What I did not expect was for my fuuma shuriken to embed itself into the base of her spine with a soft thunk, driving itself almost all the way through her torso.

Her hands went suddenly limp, though even then, I saw no shock or pain in her expression.

I quickly spun around as she fell past me like a rock. Spinning in midair, I saw the ground rapidly approaching.

Feeling the cold bite of the wind against my face as I continued to fall, I angled myself towards the side of a nearby building, summoning my sword back to my hand.

I drove the blade into the side of the building. With a jolt, I stopped in midair, hanging off the side.

There was a crunch, and I looked down to see the woman lying on the ground. Her skull had been smashed open like a ripe watermelon on her fall, her brains and blood scattered out all over the ground.

A moment later, the form of her massive ox summon smashed down as well, crushing a nearby building with the impact. The beast disappeared in a puff of smoke a moment later.

I breathed heavily, collecting myself as I stared at her body and fought down a wave of nausea.

I closed my eyes, my mind racing.

How had I managed to hit her? She had dodged the first brace of shuriken well enough when they were aimed at her blind spots. How had she not been able to dodge the fuuma shuriken?

What had changed?

I swung over, perching on the wall and channeling chakra into my feet, then wrenched my blade free, still thinking furiously.

My first brace of shuriken had missed… Or had they?

I remembered suddenly.

_That's right… the woman dodged, but the ox didn't manage to. I got it in…_

I blinked, a sudden suspicion crossing my mind.

Its eyes. I had hit it in its eyes. The same eyes that the Pain I had met in Amegakure had possessed. The same eyes that the three I had fought here had possessed. The same eyes that all of his summons possessed.

All of those bodies had the same eyes. All of them had the same chakra.

A shared field of vision?

And more than that, all of those Pains had the same chakra, something which should have been impossible if they had been different people. In addition to that, no matter the injuries I had inflicted on their bodies, there had been no pain, no hint of _feeling_. The massive ox had been the same. Even after its eyes had been stabbed, it had not even let out a even a whimper.

How was that possible? How could any living creature not feel pain to that extent?

And their expressions...

I felt a shudder. I had not been able to detect even a twitch, even with the sharingan, not even an involuntary spasm. How could a human move so much, yet remain so _still_?

I felt something. The beginning of a thought, of a theory that would allow me to understand the nature of Pain. A slight tugging, trying to pull me towards something I already _knew_, but simply couldn't recall.

My senses flared as I felt a surge of four chakras, two familiar, two less so at the edge of my consciousness.

_Kakashi, Sakura_.

And they were fighting three enemies. Three of the Pains.

I shoved my train of thought to the back of my head, all thoughts of my enemy's weaknesses forgotten in the face of the terror that gripped my heart.

Bracing myself against the wall, I pulled my sword free, and dropped to the floor.

I turned and sprinted.

XXX

I took in my surroundings instantly as I silently sprinted into the clearing.

Kakashi was buried up to his chest in rubble, his arms trapped at his side, blood dripping down the front of his face.

Nearby, Yamato was sprawled out over the ground, his left arm a mangled mess, while Sai had a strangely-shaped sword, one with a serrated edge almost like a saw, stuck in his gut.

Sakura was nowhere to be seen, but a quick pulse of my senses revealed her trapped under a fallen building behind Kakashi.

Falling apart on the ground nearby was a vaguely human-looking mechanical abomination. Its eviscerated limbs were strewn around its still-twitching corpse, each of them a mix of vaguely organic and machine parts. There were three faces growing from its strangely-shaped head, each one with two ripple-patterned eyes.

In front of them, the two figures stood. One, I immediately recognized as one of the Pains I had fought previously, the one which absorbed my ninjutsu. He stood behind the first.

The other was the one I had spoken to in Amegakure.

None of the people in the clearing had noticed me yet, even as I continued tearingtowards them.

Words reached my ears, words spoken from Pain's corpse-like mouth.

"This time, you are no mere clone," the man murmured, moving his hand in an almost casual gesture to rip a nail out of a broken piece of wood near his feet. "And so, you will die."

I realized what he was planning even before I saw the chakra surge near his fingertips.

With a thought, a brace of shuriken dropped into one hand, and my sword into the other.

"Know pain," he said.

I watched in slow motion as the nail shot out from between his fingers, propelled by some unseen force. The shuriken sailed out of my hand, through the air.

For a single, silent moment, the entire world went still.

Then the sound of metal striking metal rang out. The nail and one of the shuriken struck each other and were deflected away, the rest of my projectiles flying towards the chakra-absorbing Pain.

The first Pain whirled, instantly alerted to my location, and my sword met the black metal rod that was suddenly protruding from his palm.

"So you are here?"

I didn't respond. My other hand came up, already crackling with lightning, and plunged towards his chest.

The chakra-absorbing path was suddenly there, hand shooting out to intercept my own.

With a frustrated click of my tongue, I disengaged and leapt backwards, landing between the two Pains and Kakashi's still-buried form. We stared at each other.

"Sasuke…" Kakashi's voice was weak, but also happy. "You came…"

I glanced back at him, sharingan whirling as I pulled him into a genjutsu. The rush of images flowing into my mind was immediate. Kakashi seemed to have immediately realized what I needed.

I turned back to Pain, sorting through the information.

_One absorbs chakra, and one controls attractive and repulsive forces, huh? This won't be easy..._

"Shut up," I said coldly, acting as if nothing had just passed between us. "You just rest there for a bit while I take care of this."

"Such arrogance," Pain interjected, not even a hint of worry in his voice. "Do you truly believe you can defeat the power of God?"

I raised my sword before me. "One of you was a nice warm-up." I forced a smirk filled with a confidence I didn't feel to curl its way across my lips.

"Two might just cause me to break a sweat."

And I charged.

Before I had taken even two steps, the first Pain's hand had come up, chakra pulsing through his body.

"_Bansho Ten'in_."

I was torn off of my feet, sent hurtling forward. Pain simply held out his hand, another one of those black metal rods growing from the center of his palm.

I brought my hand up to my mouth in a single seal.

_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!_

The fireball surged forward, moving directly towards my assailant. The other Pain, the chakra-absorbing body, leapt between the fire and the main body immediately, black rods protruding from its hands as well.

The fireball struck, and the Pain's arms whirled around, deflecting all of the hidden shuriken within the attack.

I clicked my tongue.

_The same trick won't work twice, huh?_

I stabbed my sword into the ground, channeling chakra through it, and sticking it to the ground. My other hand shot out, flinging a brace of shuriken tied to ninja wire to wrap around a nearby pillar.

The tug from Pain's jutsu grew in strength. The ninja wire bit into my wrist, and I choked back a painful gasp.

The chakra absorbing body began to move towards me, the black metal weapons still in his hands.

"It is over, Sasuke," Pain declared. "You have lost. A true shame that you decided to waste Itachi's sacrifice in such a foolish manner"

Pain's body was in front of me. He raised up one hand, ready to plunge it down.

There was a sudden spike of chakra behind me as an explosion rang out.

Pain's eyes shot up.

"SHANNARO!"

He was blown away by a chunk of debris the size of a house which crushed him like a bug underneath its weight.

It didn't stop there however, continuing to tumble straight towards the other Pain, who even now held me within his grip.

He quickly darted aside, and I felt the jutsu holding me break apart. I fell down, landing on my back, and quickly scrambled back up.

"Sasuke-kun," a familiar voice said from behind me, brisk and businesslike. "Hold back Pain. I'll focus on healing the others."

I blinked. Whatever I had expected her to say, it most certainly hadn't been that.

"Since when do you get to order me around, Sakura?"

"Since I saved your life," she shot back immediately. "And since I became the single medical professional on site here."

I opened my mouth to respond, but seeing Pain ready himself to attack once more, I bit back the retort.

"Annoying woman…" I muttered to myself.

"I heard that!" Sakura called.

"You were supposed to!" I shouted back.

I darted forward at Pain once more, lightning already coursing down the length of my blade as I did.

He raised his hand, and I knew what he was planning. I let my knees give out, tumbling forward in a roll and stabbing my sword into the ground.

_Chidori Nagashi!_

Lightning ran forward across the ground. Pain didn't even try to dodge.

He spoke.

"_Shinra Tensei._"

His chakra flared out. A blast of wind struck my face, and my lightning stream was blown away, along with chunks of dirt.

But I was unaffected, just outside the range of the radius of the jutsu. My feint had caused him to misjudge the distance.

I felt a victorious smirk play across my lips, and brought my hand up to my lips, already molding the chakra. I breathed in-

"Sasuke-kun! Look out!"

I spun, eyes widening as I felt a surge of chakra behind me.

The rocket had already covered half the distance between me and the mechanical abomination. My legs tensed as I tried to build up enough force to leap aside, knowing that I would be too late.

I had no way to dodge this attack.

Desperation clawed at my heart, even as time slowed to a crawl. There was nothing more I could-

There was another spike of chakra. Space distorted, tearing ripping, _swirling_ around the rocket.

It disappeared without a trace. Kakashi's chakra weakened dangerously.

As I spun back around, now to block the charge of the other Pain, I caught a flash of a mutated pattern in his single sharingan.

I was still molding chakra to my mouth, into my stomach. I breathed in, expanding my chest.

Pain's hand shot up, a black metal rod already growing out of his palm.

_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!_

I blew a gout of fire, directly at Pain's face.

He spoke once more.

"_Shinra Tensei._"

The fireball disappeared, and the land _exploded_ around him. I felt a force smash into my chest, ribs cracking under the strength of the blow.

I flew through the air, sword wrenched from my grasp, and smashed into the ground, coming to a rest against a wall.

My ears rung, though I vaguely heard someone calling my name. It sounded like Sakura.

_Sakura_. If I didn't stop him, she would die.

That thought alone forced clarity back into my vision. I glanced to the right, and saw Pain charging at me.

With a thought, three shuriken were in my hand, then sailing through the air straight at him.

He moved as efficiently as ever, barely slowing as he dodged them. Two of the shuriken flew off above him.

One of them went low, and rebounded off of a piece of rubble behind him, shooting straight up.

There was a clang, and the two shuriken that had missed him struck the third, and were flung straight back at Pain once again.

He spun, two of the black metal rods already growing from his palms, as he knocked them out of the air.

_It seems that trick won't work twice either…_ I thought grimly.

But it had done enough, stopping long enough that I was able to regain my feet and leap away.

I faced him, a kunai out and at the ready, ignoring the pain from my broken ribs. Glancing around, I noted Sakura off to the side, now tending to Yamato and Sai simutaneously.

I felt my grip on the knife tighten involuntarily, and faced Pain.

He didn't advance, instead slowly straightening once more, and looking directly at me.

Directly _into_ me.

"Sasuke…" he said. "Will you not stop this foolishness? Even now, if you turn and walk away,I will allow you to leave."

I narrowed my eyes, looking into his, searching for any hint of deception.

There was none.

"I'm afraid I'll have to refuse," I drawled, mind racing as I attempted to think of a way to delay as I formulated another strategy. "I must wonder, though. Why would you give me such a generous offer?"

He continued staring, unblinking, just fixing me with those _eyes_.

"I still had wished to honor Itachi's last sacrifice." His voice remained as emotionless as ever, but there was a tinge of something in his chakra, something I hadn't felt before.

"It is a shame," he continued, and I felt a sudden premonition of danger, eyes widening as I tried to turn, "that you did not have the same respect."

A sledgehammer force smashed into my side, and I _flew_, crashing through a nearby wall, and landing within a ruined building. Two more of my ribs snapped like twigs.

Before I could even react this time, my attacker was on me, his hand grasping my throat. He lifted me bodily, ignoring my struggling.

I noted that he had the same orange hair, and the same metal rods driven into his face as the other bodies I had fought. His face was strong and well-built, his frame muscular. And his chakra...

_The last of those six large chakras…_ I realized. _The last of Pain's bodies._

How had he snuck up on me? That should have been-

"You are a chakra sensor, are you not, Sasuke?" the original Pain asked me, walking up beside his other self. "That was how you dodged my surprise attack earlier."

I blinked, then felt comprehension shoot through me.

Back when I had been about to roast the soul-ripping body, how I had been interrupted right before I had landed the coup de grace.

I tried to mold chakra to activate another Chidori Nagashi.

A fist thumped into my stomach before I could even try, and the air whooshed out of my lungs, along with my control over my jutsu.

"Knowing that," Pain continued, ignoring my feeble efforts at resistance. "It was a simple matter to sneak up on you. All that was necessary was to suppress my chakra in one body, and flare it in another."

I kicked out weakly, trying to hit the Pain who still held me up in the air. He didn't even react.

"As the victor," he declared, "I give you one opportunity for your survival. All you must do is answer my questions truthfully."

I stopped, and stared. A purple, monstrous figure with ripple-patterned eyes had appeared behind my captor.

With a sickening squelch, my mouth was forced open. A fleshy tongue pulled its way out of my body, and the monster grasped it, pulling it out further.

"Now answer this question, and know that the King of Hell shall judge your response. If you lie or remain silent, you will perish."

Both Pain's spoke as one, their voices meshing together into an eery chorus.

"Where is Kyuubi? Where is Uzumaki Naruto?"

I froze for a moment. That was what they wanted to know? That was why he had invaded? To find Naruto?

I felt a small smirk curl its way to my lips.

My response to his question was nothing but a whisper, but it carried, nonetheless.

"Not… here…"

Pain blinked, and there was a long pause.

The monster standing behind Pain released the tongue leading from my mouth, and it slowly flowed back into me.

Pain dropped me.

"I see… so he is not within Konoha. In that case…"

Both of the bodies turned and walked out, leaving me sprawled on the ground.

I forced myself up a moment later, ignoring the pain in my chest from the broken ribs, and stumbled forward.

Sai, Yamato and Kakashi were lying on the ground in the clearing, all of them still injured, but now seemingly stabilized, and Kakashi was no longer trapped within the rubble. Sakura…

Sakura was already halfway to Pain, her fist cocked back, tears glistening in her eyes.

"Stop!" I called out to her. If she tried to attack, Pain would kill her.

Luckily, my teammate froze at the sound of my words and turned to look at me, face cycling through fear, shock, and finally, relief.

Pain didn't even look at her as she rushed past him towards me. The original body simply stood still while the newcomer walked up to the two destroyed Pains lying in the clearing.

He stood above each for a moment, and the King of Hell appeared behind him, consuming the body, then disappearing back into the ground.

Sakura threw her arms around me in a relieved hug, sending another lance of pain up through my chest.

"Sasuke-kun! You're all right!"

I pushed her aside, and stepped forward. The original Pain turned back around to face me.

"If Uzumaki Naruto is not here, then it appears that I have no further use for this village."

His companion formed a single seal, and a figure strode out of the King of Hell's mouth.

A familiar figure. The female Pain.

The summoner.

I felt my eyes widen in shock. How? I had _destroyed_ that one!

Was that abomination capable of _healing_ Pain's bodies?

I stepped forward, kunai in hand, gritting my teeth. Sakura stepped up beside me, wordlessly bringing her hands up into a guard position.

The female Pain slammed her palm to the ground. In a puff of smoke, a blue-haired woman appeared in front of her. She was beautiful, but gave off an aura of ice. A cloak adorned with red clouds was wrapped around her body

Her chakra was different from Pain's, and for that, I felt a moment of relief. Then the main body spoke.

"Konan," he addressed her, "it is not here."

She nodded silently, waiting for him to continue.

He glanced over at the other bodies. "Move them out of the way."

She froze for just a moment. "Pain… are…" She stopped herself and shook her head. "Very well."

As I watched, her body split apart, sheets of her pulling themselves off of her skin before wrapping around the two other bodies, yet more flowing outwards to form a pair of majestic wings.

"Paper…" I murmured.

She flapped her wings once, twice, and disappeared off into the distance. I didn't try to stop her.

"Pain," I said. "What are you doing? Are you leaving?"

He turned to glance at me, then turned away.

"I told you. If Naruto is not here, then I have no more use for this village. It is time to dispose of it." He spoke as if he were doing nothing more significant than tossing out a can of garbage.

I charged, Sakura following directly behind. Lightning crackled around my fingertips.

Pain lightly pushed off of the ground and floated upwards.

I tensed and leapt upwards after him, already shaping the jutsu, already knowing it would be too late.

_Chidori Eisou!_

The spear of lightning lanced upwards, and fell short of Pain's position by a whole foot. I snarled and fell back to the ground, landing lightly.

I saw, _felt_, an immense amount of chakra gathering in him, even as he rose to the sky.

Sakura was next to me. Kakashi stumbled up to us a moment later, his forehead protector drawn down to cover his sharingan. Yamato and Sai were not far behind.

We all looked up.

"Sasuke-san," Sai started. "What is he doing?"

I shook my head. "Nothing good," I responded grimly, feeling the power radiating from Pain. "He's gathering an immense amount of chakra in that body."

Kakashi stepped forward, hand coming up to his forehead protector. "Then I'll-"

Sakura cut him off by grabbing his hand. "You can't, Kakashi-sensei! You'll die if you use that jutsu again!"

Kakashi opened his mouth to speak, but I broke in before he could. "Sakura's right. The strain of using the Mangekyo will be far too great for you in your current state." I glanced over at him. "And it's unlikely that Pain won't be ready for it this time, after already seeing you use it once."

"Then what _can _we do?" I could _feel_ the frustration oozing from his voice, uncharacteristic in its vehemence.

There was a moment of silence as Pain continued his leisurely rise to the sky.

I stepped forward.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked hesitantly. "What are you doing?"

I ignored her and closed my eyes, thinking, _remembering_.

My family, Team 7.

The family which I had been forced into. The family that had been there for me after I had lost everything. The family that had helped me claw my way out of the darkness, and the family for whom I had fallen back into it.

A family I had gained after losing another. A family which I loved all the same.

I remembered the bell test, Zabuza in Wave, the Chuunin Exams, the Invasion, Gaara, _Itachi…_

An image came to me unbidden at that name.

"_Forgive me… Sasuke. This is… the last time."_

I remembered Itachi's smile, his love, even in his final moments of life.

I remembered, and for the first time, I realized that there was no pain in it. Only a quiet sense of acceptance.

_Itachi…_

I looked up, seeing the self-proclaimed god, about to pronounce judgement on the ants beneath him. I saw him, arrogant and strong, gathering all of his power together, for one blow to crush them.

I saw him, dominant and undefeated, and I smiled.

My left eye _twisted_ in exquisite agony, and a bloody teardrop traced a line down my cheek.

_I finally understand._

I opened my mouth, and spoke a single word, brought out from the very depths of my soul, one which gave life to my power.

"_Amaterasu_."

The sky exploded in flames.

**A/N:** Well, that took a bit longer than expected.

Hope you enjoyed.

**Glossary:**

Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu - Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique - A technique that allows the user to channel fire down a cord of wire, or any other type of long object, incinerating any enemy connected or wrapped up in it.

Shinra Tensei - A technique of the Deva Path, which allows Nagato to manipulate the repulsive forces between objects, and push matter away from him at will.

Bansho Ten'in - A technique of the Deva Path, which allows Nagato to manipulate the attractive forces between objects, and pull matter towards him at will.


	16. The Murderer's Guide to Pain

Chapter 16: The Murderer's Guide to Pain

An inferno covered the sky. Black flames consumed Pain's form, removing him from sight.

Then I heard it, despite the distance. Two, simple words.

"_Shinra Tensei_."

A blast radiated forth from Pain's body. Powerful, intense, and wider than any other he had launched before. The flames were blown off of him, scattering across the sky even as tips of several taller buildings near him were crushed to bits. One large tower toppled to the ground, its structural integrity overwhelmed.

But that was the extent of the damage. Pain had gathered an immense amount of chakra in that body, but it had not been nearly enough to do what he had wanted to. Now, all of that energy had been wasted in repelling my attack.

Pain, I noted with satisfaction, had not even managed to completely avoid the black flames. His left arm had begun to crumble away from the intense heat that they had been subjected to.

But I wasn't done yet. As soon as the flames left Pain's body, my right eye _twisted_, and I reached out with my power, catching the falling embers of the Amaterasu.

"_Kagutsuchi._" I whispered.

I touched, stretched, _molded_ each of the flames, shaping them into the form I desired. Thinning, _sharpening_…

To form a set of wicked spikes, all forged from Amaterasu's black flames.

With a thought, they were all pointing at Pain. With another, they shot up into the sky, straight at him.

Pain glanced around, and I felt a hint of… something, shoot through his chakra.

Fear?

No. It was something else, something more than just that.

Then, a moment before the black spikes pierced his body, Pain disappeared in a twist of chakra which I now recognized as a summoning jutsu.

I cursed under my breath as my control over the flames began to waver. Slowly, they began inching back down, onto the village and its inhabitants.

"Tch!"

With a force of effort, I dispelled the Amaterasu, the black flames compressing, then slowly growing smaller and smaller until they finally disappeared.

I shook my head, then turned to face the others, only to see all four of them wearing expressions of unbridled shock on their faces.

Sakura was the first one who spoke. "S-Sasuke-kun, that was…"

I blinked.

"What?"

"Mangekyo…" Kakashi whispered. "Sasuke… how did you…"

I shook my head in response. "That's not important." I started to take a step forward. "For now, we need to pursue hi-"

My leg buckled, and I collapsed to one knee, struck by a sudden wave of exhaustion.

Sakura was at my side in an instant, pulling me back to my feet and supporting me. I looked back up at Kakashi. His expression was serious as he examined me. He shook his head slowly.

"It's obvious that none of us are in any condition to fight. For now, we should retreat to a safe location and assess our injuries."

I pushed Sakura off and faced Kakashi with a glare. "There's no need for that. I'll be fine in a few minutes."

My sensei shook his head. "Sasuke, you can't-"

"No," I cut him off. "Pain will be after me now, and you three are still too injured to be of use. I can't afford to waste my strength keeping you alive."

"But you won't be able to _survive_ without us either!" Sakura exclaimed. I opened my mouth to respond, but she continued. "You nearly died three times, just during that last exchange. Do you honestly think you can challenge all of the Pains at once?"

I shook my head. "I'll be fine." Slowly, I brought up my hand, covering the entirety of my face with my palm, leaving only the eyes visible.

Both of my sharingan swirled, then _twisted_.

The double Mangekyo. Mastery over both of the kaleidoscopes, which brought with it…

"I have a new power now. Pain won't find me as easy of a target as he did last time."

Kakashi stared for a moment, then clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Fine." I felt a short rush of triumph, quickly cut off as he turned to face my teammate and continued. "Sakura, go with him."

Kakashi fixed me with his stare once again, before I could protest. "She isn't injured, like the rest of us are," he said, "and a medic will be of help to you. New power or no, Pain still outclasses you, and the fact remains that _you_ are the best chance the village has at survival at this point. We can't afford to let you die, Sasuke."

"Your injuries-" I began.

"Will be fine," he cut me off. "The Godaime will need a report on what has happened here anyways. She will be able to take care of us."

"Pain isn't _stupid_," I snarled. "He already knows she's a medic. If I bring her with me, he'll target her first, and I don't know if I'll be able to stop him."

"That's fine too," Sakura broke in. "I can serve as a distraction for you, then."

I swung to face her, and I was surprised at the anger I saw in her eyes, anger that was directed at… me?

I blinked in confusion.

"Sakura," I started slowly. "I won't let you-"

"No," she snapped. "You won't _let_ me do anything. I'm choosing to come with you, and you'll just have to deal with it."

"You're _choosing_ to die!" I growled. "Don't be _stupid_, Sakura!"

"Me? Stupid?" she shot back. "You don't get to talk to _me_ about stupidity, Sasuke! Not after you abandoned us and ran off to Orochimaru all those years ago!"

"That was different!" I insisted. "It was for the greater good! I did it for-"

"Yourself! You were always just thinking about yourself! Did you ever care about us, about Team 7? Did you bother to consider how we'd feel after you just _left_ like that? Did you even _care_?"

"I did it to _protect_ you! Why can't you see that?"

"We didn't _need_ you to protect us! All Naruto and I ever wanted was to walk by your side, for you to see us as your equals!"

I began to speak, another furious retort on the tip of my tongue, but I stopped, mouth going dry.

Sakura…

Sakura was crying.

"Why?" she asked quietly. "Why are you always so _selfish_?"

I wanted to protest. I wanted to tell her that she was wrong, that I wasn't selfish, that I _did_ care about their feelings.

The words wouldn't come out.

Memories flashed across my vision, scenes preserved with the sharingan's perfect clarity, all suddenly bubbling to the surface.

I had fled the village all those years ago out of fear. Fear for my friends, fear of Itachi, fear of Orochimaru. I had allowed those fears to dictate my actions.

Of course I had cared about what Naruto and Sakura would feel of my presumed betrayal. Of course I had considered how it would affect my friends.

But after that consideration, with cold, ruthless precision I had discarded those feelings as unimportant, convincing myself that what I had done was for the best.

Then came Orochimaru. I had promised Karin that we would face him together, that she would be at my side when he fell. But then, I had betrayed that promise, once again out of fear. Fear of Orochimaru, and fear of Itachi, of what my brother would do if he found Naruto before I could stop him.

And when the time had come to face Itachi himself? In order to force her to stay back, I had knocked Karin out with genjutsu, using that to make sure that Suigetsu and Juugo would stay back to guard her as well.

Why had I done it? Was it out of selflessness, out of a desire to protect them?

No.

It was because I was afraid of losing them, of watching Itachi kill them. Because I was afraid of the responsibility of _protecting_ them, of protecting anyone.

And now, here, in the middle of an invasion, I was doing it again. I was pushing Sakura aside and charging into near-certain death, thinking only about how losing her would affect me.

_Fear_. Always fear. Fear of loss, of watching the people I loved all dying in front of me once again.

But I had never once cared that they might feel the same fear of losing _me_. I had only ever given thought to my own feelings, my own desires.

I almost laughed at the stupidity of it all.

Uchiha Sasuke, the hero of his own great tragedy, always thinking of others even as he hurt them over and over again. Uchiha Sasuke, who tried to turn himself into some sort of twisted martyr, all out of a desire to convince himself that _he_ was the hero.

I looked at Sakura, wiping furiously at her eyes, trying to clear away her tears, and smiled a bitter smile. My hand came up, two fingers stretched out.

I reached out and slowly, gently, tapped her on the forehead.

She opened her eyes and stared at me.

"Sakura… forgive me. I've been a fool." I wanted to make excuses, but they would just be words, easily spent, meaningless.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered, "have you-"

She was cut off as my fingers came down across her lips, silencing her.

I would show her with my actions.

"Just 'Sasuke' is fine, Sakura," I said to her, a small, playful smile rising unbidden to my own face. "It's hard enough to think of you as an equal _without _you acting like we're still in the Academy."

She blinked, eyes widening slowly as she kept staring at me, seeing that I was serious.

Then, she broke out into a happy, honest smile. "Then you'll-!"

I nodded in confirmation, then turned, opening my mouth…

"Let's g-"

… and was interrupted when a flying red streak hit me right in the stomach, bowling me over.

"Sasuke! You're all right!" Karin cried out in relief from her position on top of me. Shaking my head to clear away the sudden flash pain from my broken ribs, I glanced behind her, seeing Suigetsu and Juugo land nearby. Suigetsu pulled out his water bottle and gave me a nonchalant grin and a wave, but said nothing.

"K-Karin…" I managed to get out. "Get… off. I'm injured."

She gave a quick gasp and quickly scooched off of me, leaving me breathing heavily on the ground. A moment later, she offered me a hand which I gratefully took, hoisting myself back to my feet.

I was somewhat less grateful when, instead of releasing the appendage afterwards, Karin took the opportunity to latch onto my arm.

"Karin, wha-"

I was interrupted when Sakura moved next to me and firmly grasped my other arm.

I blinked.

"Sakura, you t- gah!"

Sakura's grip on my arm suddenly tightened painfully, and I couldn't help but let out a gasp of pain.

"Sa-su-ke," she said, looking up at me with a positively angelic smile adorning her face. "Who is this girl?"

Karin's grip on my other arm suddenly constricted as well, and I barely held back a girlish yelp at the sudden pain.

"Yes," she said, and I noted that her expression was a perfect match for the one on Sakura's face. "I'm curious too. Who is this, Sasuke?"

A sudden chill shot down my spine, and I felt a bead of sweat slowly trace its way down my cheek.

Danger. This was super huge danger. Not even while fighting Pain had I felt such a terrifying, imminent sense of destruction creeping up on me.

I heard a sudden muffled noise, and looked up to see Suigetsu with his fist in his mouth, his back shaking as he watched me. The glare I shot him could have curdled milk, but he only laughed harder at it.

Looking around, other than Sai, who was glancing back and forth between me and Suigetsu, my companions seemed to be similarly amused by my predicament. Kakashi's single eye was turned down in an expression of amusement, Yamato was grinning broadly, and even Juugo's lips had slightly curled up at the edges.

I ground my teeth, and tried my best to burn them all to ashes with just my gaze. Unfortunately, using the Amaterasu again in my current state would probably only unnecessarily weaken me, so I discarded that option.

Another tightening of the vice grips locked around my arms, and I glanced back down.

"Well?" Sakura and Karin asked as one.

My anger was washed away by the renewal of the fear.

"I…" I croaked, then licked my lips, trying to speak through my suddenly dry throat. "I-"

Kakashi clapped. "Well, children! That's enough for now." I shot him a grateful look, which was immediately wiped away with his next words. "You two can rip Sasuke-chan to shreds _after_ we're done here. He'll probably enjoy it, too!" The last sentence was spoken with a suggestive wink in my direction. I glowered furiously, but said nothing.

I did not _enjoy _having crazy women attempt to tear my arms off.

However, it worked. A moment later, Sakura and Karin slowly released me, still glaring daggers at each other as they did.

I sighed, glancing between the two of them, then turning to my team.

I glanced over the three of them. Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin.

My first instinct was to send the three of them and Sakura with Kakashi and his men, saying that they would need protection.

But that… that was a reaction born of fear.

And I was tired of letting my fear rule me.

I turned to face my sensei.

"Kakashi, will you be alright with just the three of you?"

He glanced between me and Sakura, and smiled once again, then nodded. A moment later, the three of them leapt away.

I turned to the remaining people. Sakura, Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin.

I smiled.

"Let's go."

Then a voice pierced the air, and my smile was wiped away.

"Go where exactly, Sasuke?"

My eyes widened, and I spun, looking up, to see six figures arrayed in a circle across the rooftops of the buildings around us. Each of them bore the same, ripple-patterned eyes.

Each of them radiated immense power. Where before their chakra had been icy, as terrifying and all-consuming as a blizzard, now it _boiled_, like a geyser just on the edge of explosion.

Pain was angry.

_Pain_ was angry.

Pain was _angry_.

One of them, the strange-looking one, which seemed to lack ears had his hand outstretched, a bizarre cylindrical implement growing out of the end of it. A growing ball of energy was forming near the barrel.

I spun. "_Move_!"

The ground exploded.

XXX

Before I had even hit the floor again, I was already forming seals, breathing in.

_Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!_

The six fireballs I spat out shot forward, each unerringly moving towards one of the Pains. Four of the bodies instantly scattered. Of the remaining two fireballs, the first dissipated at a wave of force a foot away from its target, while the second one was absorbed into upraised palms, without a blink.

I smashed into the ground, skidding along until I hit a nearby wall, my breath rushing out of me with the impact. I looked up just in time to see a black metal rod lancing straight for my throat.

I barely shifted my head in time to avoid the strike which stabbed into the wall behind me, then _through_ it.

I looked up to see the long-haired Pain, the one which was able to tear out souls from their bodies with a touch. It was unhurt, as if the crippling injury I had delivered to its arm had never even existed.

My fingers touched the ground, lightning already crackling around them.

_Chidori Nagashi._

The lightning streamed along the ground, towards the Pain's entering the Pain's legs. It bucked, then spasmed, its knees giving out as it fell backwards.

I rolled aside, and quickly stumbled to my feet, only to see a storm of rockets already shooting through straight at me, too fast to dodge.

Rockets which were annihilated in a blast of pure energy which intercepted them long before they could hit me. Mad laughter filled my ears, and an already-half mutated Juugo hit the mechanical Pain in the face with an immense, chitinous sledgehammer of an arm.

"Hahahahaha! _**DIE**_!"

A quick glance around the battlefield told me that he and Suigetsu were the only ones up, the latter already squaring off against the summoner, now astride a massive three-headed dog. Sakura and Karin were still rising to their feet, but both seemed uninjured.

The one that summoned the King of Hell, the _interrogator_, as I had decided to call him, was already leaping at Sakura and Karin, apparently trying to take advantage of their injured states to finish them quickly. The other two, the one which controlled gravity, and the one which absorbed chakra were sprinting straight towards me.

Both of my hands flashed out. From one flew a storm of Chidori-encoated senbon, straight towards the interrogator, while from the other, eight shuriken shot out to intercept the chakra absorber.

The interrogator immediately spun, easily knocking the senbon out of the air, but buying Sakura and Karin a few more seconds in the process. The chakra absorber, on the other hand, smoothly avoided my shuriken, a hand holding a black metal rod flashing out to sever the strands of ninja wire connecting them to me.

I clicked my tongue, and let out a single spark of chakra.

The tiny explosive seals engraved on the shuriken detonated three feet behind the Pain. The resulting wave of concussive energy bowled him over onto his face.

I smirked. While the body could no doubt have absorbed the chakra that fueled the explosion itself had it been in contact with the shuriken when I set them off, the same could not be said for the forces that were the _result_ of that explosion.

My triumph was short-lived however, as I looked back at the main body, still coming straight at me. I glanced over, and found my sword stuck in the ground, only a few feet away.

But there was no time to get to it before the main body got to _me_.

In fact, I realized after the briefest of moments, there was no time for me to do _anything_.

Desperately, I leapt back, already knowing that I would be too late, already knowing what was coming.

A familiar chakra flared behind me, and I felt a force clasp my body in an iron grip, pulling me up into the air along the side of a building behind me. A wave of furious gravity exploded just a few inches from my face. Not bothering to question my good fortune, I inhaled.

_Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu_

The fireball I spat out shot straight at the main body, which leapt backwards to avoid the attack, buying me a few more seconds.

Glancing down, I noticed a thin line of black trailing away from my shadow leading up the wall to the roof where sat the familiar figure of Shikamaru, a look of intense concentration on his face.

A moment later, the summoner was blasted off of her mount as a gigantic human bowling ball landed on top of it with earth-shattering force, then _kept rolling_ to bowl over a massive chameleon, a panda the size of a building, and the same ox which I had defeated earlier.

At the same time, both Karin and Sakura seemed to jerk and instantly regain their bearings. I felt another chakra seem to shroud theirs, directing their bodies. Their movements suddenly smooth and coordinated, the two of them flawlessly performed a graceful, flowing combination attack which sent the interrogator, which had renewed its assault on them, sailing through the air to crash into the ground dozens of paces away.

But there was no time for relief at the sudden aid we had received. Already, I could see the soul-ripping body and the chakra absorber regaining their feet beneath me. A short glance told me that Juugo was now being driven back by the abomination he was fighting, despite his ever-advancing transformation. The massive animals, too, were rising to their feet, seemingly not even dazed by Chouji's unexpected ambush.

We needed to retreat, to regroup.

I glanced up. "Shikamaru! Get them out of here! I'll cover you!"

"Already on it!"

I didn't question. Instead, I dropped back to the ground, and charged, forcing myself to move as fast as I could, ignoring the agony ripping through my chest as my broken ribs flared up. Hand crackling with lightning, I reached forward and tore my sword from the earth, attaching it to a piece of ninja wire on my wrist as I did.

Then I flung it, now coated with the chidori had been in my hand just a moment before, directly at the main body, which was already hot on my tail.

It didn't move, or even attempt to dodge. Instead, an inch in front of its face, the blade froze.

"_Shinra Tensei_."

And was blown away from Pain's body with enough force to nearly cause me to stumble, still connected to the sword by the piece of wire.

Instead, I gritted my teeth and _pulled_, stabilizing it in midair, now pointing directly at the interrogator. At the same time, I summoned another brace of shuriken, which I sent directly at the main body, already molding chakra.

The burning ache in my chest persisted, but I pushed it aside, forcing myself to _focus_.

I felt the main body leap away, the projectiles striking the floor where he had been standing a moment earlier, then detonating. I breathed out, facing the wire that still connected me to my sword.

_Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu_

I breathed out, six small bursts which traveled along the wire and into my still-crackling sword.

And from the end of the blade emerged six fireballs, one after the other, each of them now holding a part of the lightning that had originally coated it hidden within it, dissolved, but not truly _mixed_.

They flashed forward at the interrogator, one already in the lead. The Pain's hand shot out, a black metal rod already in its grip, and batted the fireball aside casually, almost contemptuously.

Only to jerk and freeze up as it dispersed into pure lightning, which traveled down the metal and into the Pain's arm. The rod fell from nerveless fingers, and the body tried to throw itself aside.

The next fireball caught it on its numbed arm, utterly consuming the appendage a moment later. Its leg was struck next, and it dropped to the floor like a bag of potatoes.

Then the chakra absorber was there, easily catching the other three fireballs in its hands. Behind him, the King of Hell took shape and the interrogator disappeared within.

I was already charging, yanking on the ninja wire. My sword flew back to land snugly in my hand and I leapt forward, ignoring the scream of protest from my broken ribs, blade coming down in a two-handed blow to strike at the chakra absorber, directly on its skull.

Both of the Pain's hands also came up clutching a black metal rod, longer than the ones he usually produced, and caught my own weapon before it hit.

My breathing was ragged, and I could already feel waves of exhaustion about to overtake me. The flaring agony in my ribs did nothing to help matters.

I shoved those thoughts to the corner of my mind. No time for that now.

My left hand left the hilt of my sword and came down to snatch the length of ninja wire which was still attached to it. Before Pain could react, the wire was wrapped around both of its arms, tangling them together.

A slight touch of chakra, and a kunai shot out of the seal on my wrist into a waiting palm.

I reached around, ignoring the Pain's struggles, and neatly severed its spine with the knife in a single, smooth motion. It collapsed, twitching, to the ground.

There was no time to destroy the rest of it, though. I could already feel the main body, almost on me from behind.

Fire shot through my chest once more, and I gasped for breath. Even _standing _was an effort at this point.

But I was not yet done.

The kunai came back up and I severed the ninja wire attached to my sword. I stabbed the blade into the ground.

My hands flashed together. Five seals.

_Katon: Haijingakure no Jutsu!_

I breathed out, and ash flowed out from between my lips in a quickly-expanding field, which soon engulfed the battlefield, hiding all from view.

I stretched out my senses. Sakura and Karin were already out of range of the cloud, Ino's chakra no longer holding over them like a shroud. Chouji was running, holding Suigetsu in his fist as he did. Shikamaru…

Shikamaru had grabbed Juugo with his shadow as soon as I had brought up the shroud of ash, attempting to pull him away. However, my companion was already in the full throes of the madness his transformation brought upon him, and was resisting, attempting to continue fighting.

I leapt and started running for Juugo, nearly tripping over my feet in my tiredness, but somehow maintaining my balance nonetheless.

As I got close, I spiked my chakra. His transformation faded immediately, and he seemed to sag, just before Shikamaru's shadow took hold and pulled him away.

I followed, onto the roof of a nearby building where Shikamaru was waiting, along with a still-disoriented Juugo. I ignored them, instead turning around to face the rolling cloud, and breathed deeply, looking, feeling, _sensing_.

My legs tensed, and I leapt straight up, inverting and spinning in midair. Four kunai shot into each hand from the storage seals on my wrists.

My hands shot out, and six flew into the cloud. One moment later, and the two others followed.

There was a clang as the kunai struck each other in midair, moving off in disparate directions.

They each embedded themselves precisely in the centers of of the eyes of Pain's four massive summons.

A moment later, each of the tags attached to the kunai exploded.

The entire cloud of ash went up in flames, exploding powder igniting with the heat of the blast.

I began turning around, trying to face Shikamaru and Juugo, to tell them to move, that I had only delayed Pain for a couple of minutes at most, but then I couldn't feel my legs, and there was a wall of gray concrete, rushing up to meet my fa-.

XXX

I blinked. The world of blackness stretched out around me, now somehow familiar in its smooth uniformity.

"That was rather reckless of you, Sasuke," a familiar voice spoke from behind me.

It took me a moment to process what had been said, then I sighed and turned around.

There he was, once again.

"Do you have an issue, _Shadow_?" I asked, feeling somewhat exasperated.

He tilted his head. "Not at all. I am simply curious as to your reasons." I narrowed my eyes, but he continued, heedless. "Why did you decide to protect them in the end?"

"Would you rather I had helped Pain instead of tried to stop him?" I snapped. "Killed the people of Konoha indiscriminately in the name of revenge?"

He blinked, seemingly genuinely surprised by that question, then shook his head firmly. "Of course not. Such vengeance would have been both stupid and utterly pointless."

I blinked, my abrupt annoyance dying almost immediately. "Pointless? Why do you say that?"

He stared at me for a moment, then sighed. "Sasuke, what do you think Konoha truly _is_?"

I blinked, taken off balance by the sudden change in direction of the conversation. "How does that matter?"

He spoke on. "Is this village its borders, the borders of Hi no Kuni?" He shook his head. "No, for the borders are always in flux, yet the village remains the same. It does not change its behavior based off of such trivial matters."

He glanced up, but I didn't respond. He continued speaking. "Is it, then, the buildings?" He shook his head once again, in response to his own question. "No, of course not. Even if the buildings are torn down, the village will simply rebuild and continue, just as it has always been."

"You've done nothing but state the obvious so far," I caustically interjected. "Is there a point to this?"

He simply smiled that annoying smile of his, and continued speaking. "What do you think, then, Sasuke? What is Konoha?"

"The people," I asserted without hesitation.

His smile widened, and I had the sudden, distinct impression that he had expected me to say exactly that.

"An answer, which, perhaps, represents a more accurate view than the other two." He shook his head yet again. "But even then, it is an oversimplification. The faces are switched out with each other, yes, but the village itself does not truly _change_ with them, does it?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, becoming intrigued with this sudden new direction despite myself.

He nodded, then continued. "Take, for example, the case of the Uchiha." I felt my jaw clench in instinctive anger, but forced myself to relax, to let the tension seep out of me. After a moment's pause, and an acknowledging nod, the Firstborn continued.

"What happened to the clan was not a flight of fancy, Sasuke. It was the culmination of years upon years of institutionalized segregation, started during the era of Hashirama, and only exacerbated during the times of his two successors. Nothing overt, of course," he said at my curious look, "it was simply the combination of a thousand tiny factors: the location of the Uchiha district, far away from the village proper, the isolation and negative feelings directed towards the police officers in Konoha, and the Uchiha clan's utter lack of political clout despite their status as one of the founding clans of Konoha…" he trailed off.

"What does that _prove_?" I asked, incensed. I had no desire to revisit this piece of history in the first place, and the Shadow's rambling was annoying me.

"All of those things were simply the result of policies that were enacted at the very creation of the village. The face of the leader at the head of those policies, whether it was one sympathetic to the clan's plight, like Hashirama's or Hiruzen's, or one simply indifferent, such as Tobirama's, changed nothing." He said, then continued quietly.

"And that was the point. Nothing _changed_."

I paused for a moment, allowing that to sink in, then spoke.

"How does this relate to my question?"

"What Konoha is, and by extension, what destroyed your family, was not borders, buildings, or even people, Sasuke. It was a _system_." He shrugged. "That is why it is pointless to kill the people. They would die, but the system would continue under a different face, and, perhaps, if you killed enough, a different name, but it would still be much the same. _Unchanging_."

There was a moment of silence, then, seeing that I was not about to respond, the Firstborn continued. "Perhaps joining Pain would not be such a foolish course of action, then, if you truly sought revenge."

I blinked. "What?"

"His end goal," the shadow murmured. "What he is trying to do here. I believe that Pain's true objective in both cases is to shatter that system which I spoke of, the system of the Hidden Villages." He looked at me, and his spiral-patterned eyes sharpened, and seemed to bore through me.

"And yet," he murmured, "you choose to oppose him even then. I find it interesting."

"You disapprove that I am not helping him." I declared.

The Firstborn laughed.

"It is not my place to disapprove, Sasuke." At my quizzical look, he continued. "I told you before, did I not, that you interested me? Then to infringe upon your ability to make choices would ruin the very reason you caught my attention in the first place." He shook his head. "No. I am simply here to aid you and advise you, to prolong your life upon this road you have chosen, and to walk it with you to the end. And perhaps, at that end…" He trailed off, glancing up, and frowned. "It seems we are out of time."

Before I could ask what he meant, the world wavered around us, and I felt myself suddenly start to rise, as if something was pulling me out of the darkness.

The Firstborn stared straight at me.

"I will use my chakra to refill your power, and to encourage healing of your wounds, Sasuke. But please, do try to be a bit more careful in the future. I cannot save you _every_ time."

I opened my mouth to bite out a vicious retort, but before I could, I was rising, rising through the air until-

XXX

Awareness returned slowly, and the world was nothing more than a dark blurry mess around me as it did. I tried to stand, but felt a gentle weight pushing me back down as I did.

"He's awake," I heard a familiar voice - Sakura - call from above me.

"I could figure that much out on my own, you gorilla." That was Karin.

Color had returned by now, and I saw Karin's arm out in front of me, sleeve already furled up.

"Gorilla?!" Sakura almost-screeched, though she seemed to bite back on the full force of her voice. "That's a big thing for you to say, you _weed_! Sasuke doesn't-"

Her voice was cut off by a strained gasp from Karin as I reached out and bit her arm, sucking in the warm, healing chakra as I did. I could feel it start to work almost immediately, moving to help heal a variety of small cuts and bruises and knitting my ribs back together as it did.

I frowned, realizing that there was something else. Gentle chakra, directing Karin's own to the worst areas of injury, improving the efficiency of the process.

I glanced down, and saw Sakura, hands wreathed in green, tending to my bare chest with a look of unbroken concentration.

But behind even that, there was another chakra, flowing into me, I could feel now. This was… dark. Icy cold, like a glacier of unmelting ice, and so subtle that I doubted either Karin or Sakura noticed it. This chakra flowed into my core, revitalizing my strength, refilling my stamina once again, far more effectively than even a soldier pill would have been able to.

I shuddered. I could feel the sweet siren call of pure _power_ within it, so potent that I had to resist the urge to reach out and touch it, to use it all as it flowed into me, even knowing…

I shook my head clear of those thoughts and sat up, careful to allow Sakura to continue her ministrations, and looked around the room, noticing Ino lying in a corner, and Chouji sitting next to her.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Shikamaru approaching from one side. Turning to face him, I opened my mouth, about to ask where we were and how long I'd been out, but before I could

"We're in an at the entrance to an underground passage out of the village. Ino, Chouji and I have been moving people here since the invasion started," he said, in response to my first unspoken question. "Oh, and you've been unconscious for around ten minutes. Your friend Juugo and I," he gestured behind himself, and I saw Juugo leaning against one of the walls, Suigetsu next to him, "had to carry you all the way back here."

"Pain?" I asked.

"You got him with that explosion," Shikamaru said. "Dazed him long enough for us to disappear, but…"

"He's been scouting the surface nearby with those six bodies of his, no doubt searching for us," Karin said. "He's suppressing their chakra, but I can still feel them, even then."

"He's looking for me," I muttered. "If I don't get out soon…"

"No," Sakura objected immediately. "If you try to fight in your current state, you'll reopen your wounds."

"If I don't, Pain will try to level the village again," I responded coolly.

"So those black flames _were_ you, weren't they Sasuke-kun?" I looked up to see that Ino had joined us, Chouji not far behind.

I nodded curtly in response to her question. "Are you two still able to fight?" I asked.

"I can still use my jutsu," Ino said. "But if I get into close combat…" she gripped her shoulder and winced.

Chouji nodded. "I'll be fine. Just a few scratches and bruises. Nothing major."

I turned back to Shikamaru. "What do you suggest we do?"

"Share information," he responded. "What have you observed about Pain?"

"I assume that you've already understood the abilities of most of his bodies?" I asked.

Shikamaru nodded. "The woman is a summoner, the chubby one absorbs chakra, the strange-looking one can transform his body into machines, and the spiky-haired one controls attractive and repulsive forces. What about the other two?"

"The one with long hair and the arrogant expression can…" I paused for a moment, thinking on how best to explain it. "He can rip out a person's soul - or something _like_ the soul - with a touch," I said. "And the stocky-looking man can heal the others."

"I see," Shikamaru murmured. "So that one should be our priority, huh? Anything else?"

I opened my mouth, but before I could, I saw something out of the corner of my vision. I turned to examine it, and blinked.

_A… piece of paper?_

It took me all of a second to process the implications of that.

I was already on my feet and sprinting for the exit, sheathed sword in hand.

"Run!"

Then the floor trembled with a dozen minor detonations, and the ceiling started to collapse on top of us.

XXX

We emerged from the cavern coughing and covered in dust.

"Above!" Karin called.

That was about as much warning as I got before a massive summoned bird with a long, knotted beak plummeted straight out of the sky upon our ragged party.

We scattered like a swarm of ants before a sudden tidal wave, barely dodging the gargantuan avian as it smashed directly into ground nearby, ripping through the concrete like tissue paper and throwing up a cloud of dust and small rocks.

I had a dozen shuriken in my hands at once, and they were flying through the air a moment later, only to thud into thick, resilient flesh of the summon's eyelids.

Pain learned quickly, as usual.

I was already turning around, searching for any other signs of attack as I did.

My vigilance was rewarded a moment later when the long-haired Pain burst out of the cloud in front of me, black rod flashing down. There was a resounding clash of metal, and then we were staring into each other's eyes, faces inches apart.

"It seems that the vermin have been flushed out of their lair," Pain murmured. "Though you remain as difficult to kill as always, Sasuke."

I remained silent, muscles straining as I tried to push Pain off of me.

"I suppose," he murmured, "it is no less than what I should have expected from Itachi's brother."

A sudden spike of chakra behind me, and I disengaged and executed a retreating pirouette, dodging out of the way of a massive chain-blade which shattered the ground where I had been standing but a moment earlier.

_Chidori Nagashi!_

An electrical current raced across the distance between me and the two Pains. The soul-ripper immediately leapt aside.

The Pain which had just attacked me - the mechanical abomination - simply stepped forward onto the sheet of lightning covering the ground.

And charged straight forward as if my jutsu didn't even exist. I barely had the time to be surprised before a foot coated in a strange, rock-like material was flashing at my chest.

Instead of trying to block, I dropped to one knee, allowing the blow to sail over my shoulder, only for the body to contort unnaturally, one of its four arms suddenly transforming into a cylindrical cannon, which was now pointed directly at my face.

I dove aside, barely escaping the blast of energy that annihilated the floor just a moment later, rolling to arrive back on my feet.

But there was no respite. The soul-ripper was on me again, two black metal rods slashing at me.

I met his furious onslaught, my Kusanagi in my right hand, and a blade of pure lightning clutched in the other. We weaved together, darting in and out of each other's defenses, my weapons slashing out, only for him to counter and dodge.

Faster and faster, our movements blurred together as we both tried to find a break in the other's defense, both of us too seemingly-evenly matched to defeat the other.

But slowly, inexorably, I began to push him back. His weapons, durable as they were, were unable to survive prolonged contact with my Chidori Eisou and Raiton-enhanced sword, and at this point, we were moving so quickly that he did not have time to replace them even as we fought.

But just as his weapons were about to give out, just before I could finish him off, we were interrupted. A sudden presence behind me, and I ducked, the chain-blade sailing over my head and missing the soul-ripper's face by a mere inch.

Then _I_ was the one being driven back. One Pain would strike out, and I would block, only for the other's attack to already be shooting towards an opening in my defense, at which point I would dodge backwards, only to once again be forced back as another blow shot towards my vital areas.

In this manner, I was rapidly driven back, the pace of the fight now working to my own disadvantage. I had no time to form seals, no time to use jutsu. There was only the dance now, of steel and lightning, the occasional rocket or blast of energy thrown in, all of which worked to push me deeper and deeper into a corner.

A clash, and I caught both of the Pains' weapons on my own, bringing myself face-to-face with them.

"Can you truly afford to dawdle here, Sasuke?" the soul-ripper asked. "Your allies are being defeated, even as we speak."

With a growing sense of horror, I realized that he was correct. Even as we began our dance again, I could feel Shikamaru and Ino's chakras flickering, as if they were merely on the edge of consciousness. Their bodies were sprawled out on the ground, both of them leaking blood.

Chouji, on the other hand, was surrounded by a pack of massive, three-headed dogs, snapping out chunks of his flesh. The Akimichi let out a bellow of pain and reached up to tear the canine of of his shoulder, but as soon as he did, it was replaced by two more. He went down a moment later, still screaming the defiant, impotent rage reflected in his chakra.

I could feel, _taste_ Suigetsu and Juugo's desperation as they engaged the chakra absorber and the main body. They were faltering, being driven back step by step just as I had been, as if they were pieces on a board expertly being maneuvered into a vulnerable position.

The fatal blow came just a moment later when the chakra-absorber grabbed the Hozuki. Juugo's fist impacted the absorber's face a moment later, and the body crumpled like a ragdoll, but Suigetsu was already drained of all of his chakra and collapsed. A single, almost-contemptuous blast of force cracked Juugo's partially-transformed arms like twigs a second after, and the man fell, already unconscious before he hit the ground.

Sakura and Karin fought a succession of immense animals, the summoner perched atop of one of them. They were the only two who seemed to be faring somewhat well, Karin directing, and Sakura using her monstrous strength to destroy the summons in single, crushing blows.

But that wouldn't last. Even as I desperately tried to break through, to get to where they were, I could feel the other enemies branching off, heading towards the two of them, about to-

Karin let out a cry of agony as one of the metal rods was driven into her stomach. Sakura was blown away a moment later by a blast of repulsive force, smashing into the wall of a nearby building, then crashing down insensate.

My vision turned white. Fear, fury desperation, all blended together into an inferno of emotion, a storm of darkness, roiling in my gut. I had to save them. I had to-

And in that moment, I made my fatal mistake. I allowed my emotions to control me, lashing out desperately at a fake opening in the soul-ripper's defense, only to scream in agony as a black metal rod entered and buried itself in my shoulder.

Exactly in center of the knotted scar tissue still left over from when Itachi had stabbed me there, just a few weeks before.

Torturous burning fire ran down my arm, and warm blood gushed out of the wound like a fountain.

Then my scream too, was stolen from me as the mechanical Pain's weighted foot impacted my stomach, shattering my ribs once again, sending me flying, smashing through one wall, then another. I tumbled to a stop as a struck a metal lamppost just a moment later. The impact sent a jarring pain through my body, and I felt the taste of hot iron in my mouth, realizing that I had just coughed up blood.

I rolled over and forced strength into my arms, pushing myself back up. I managed one shambling step towards where my friends lay, then a sudden wave of dizziness struck me. I bent over and vomited up yet more blood, then leaned back against a nearby wall, trying to recover my breath.

Noticing the black metal rod still buried in my shoulder, I reached up and began to tug. Stars flared before my eyes, and I almost screamed again, but slowly, painfully, I tore it out.

It landed with a clatter on the ground.

"Do you still rise, Sasuke? Even now? Your body is broken, your friends defeated, and this village's spirit is crushed. Why do you not give up?"

I looked up. Five sets of ripple-patterned eyes stared at me. Five bodies, five Pains.

"It's… _because_ of those things… that I can't give up… Pain." Every word was an effort, but I made the effort to speak anyways. The dark chakra, _his_ chakra, continued to flow in, forcing my body to hold itself together, refilling my reserves even as I spoke. I just needed to stall for time.

Pain nodded slowly, then spoke again.

"Tell me, Sasuke. What motivates you? How can you fight so hard for this village which destroyed everything you ever loved?" he paused for a moment, and in any other man, I would have interpreted that pause as a moment of thought, of reflection. Pain's face, however, remained as dead as it always was, betraying nothing.

"It is… a contradiction," he said at last. "_You_ are a contradiction. You and I, we have both experienced the same pain, the pain of watching our parents die, of being forced to kill our dearest brothers, the pain of watching atrocities committed while being _helpless_ to stop them. Why can you not understand my vision, my desires?"

"Your… desires?" I asked, then laughed, a hacking, cold thing which ended just a moment later in a fit of coughing. "What do you… _desire_, Pain?" I asked, regaining control. "A world inhabited by people like us? A world filled with broken children who have lost their families, of men and women who have lost their wives and husbands, of grandparents who watch their grandchildren die far before their time?"

"A place where people are drawn together through _empathy_!" For the first time, I heard Pain raise his voice. "A place where we can _understand_ the consequences of inflicting suffering upon those around us! Why can't you _see_?"

I barely held back another laugh at that. "Empathy?" I asked. "What _empathy_? Just look at us! I, who was so driven by fear after my family died that I inflicted the same loneliness, the same suffering that I had experienced upon my dearest friends! And you? You want to inflict yours on the entire _world_! Suffering does not breed _empathy_, only _self-pity_!"

Fury shot through Pain's chakra. Hatred, stronger, even more potent than before. Hatred born of frustration.

"Then I will not be able to convince you," he whispered.

Suddenly, I was flying through the air, straight up. I barely had the time to register that one of Pain's bodies had slammed a fist into my stomach, into my broken ribs, lifting me straight up, before another blow struck my back.

I flew like some sort of macabre bowling ball, straight back down.

The third strike caught me in my injured arm, knocking me sideways into the waiting grasp of another foe, who caught me, spinning with the momentum, and flung me back up.

The blow that hit my chest sent me straight down, smashing into the ground, cratering the area around me. I looked up, watching five bodies descending, five metal rods, descending to five vital areas. Lungs, right and left, heart, throat, and stomach.

The world seemed to slow around me, almost to a crawl.

Was I going to die here, so pointlessly, too weak to help my friends, too weak to protect what was important to me, just like that time?

Was I going to perish, the last of my clan, the last of my family, having failed Itachi's wishes, and having failed in resurrecting the Uchiha?

Was I going to perish at the hands of this insane child of a man, so consumed in his own suffering that he was incapable of understanding his own flaws?

'_Only if you give up, Sasuke,_' a familiar voice whispered in the back of my skull.

Chakra flared in my eyes, both of them _twisting_, bloody teardrops tracing their way down my cheeks.

And as that power welled, so too did a familiar, exquisite tearing sensation, now not just restricted to my eyes, but flowing through my entire body like molten iron in my blood.

_Form..._

Violet flames flared before my eyes.

_Life…_

The power of two combined Mangekyo sharingan, the ultimate power of the Uchiha.

"_Susanoo_…"

Metal struck ethereal bone with a resounding crash.

Then metal _shattered_.

XXX

I lay there, staring into Pain's shocked eyes for what seemed to be an eternity, agony spreading through every cell of my body.

Then I forced strength into my legs and arms, pushing myself up, trying to rise, to begin fighting again.

"_Shinra Tensei_."

I was smashed back into the floor. with a blast of force. I looked up to see that four of the Pains had retreated, leaving only one standing over me.

"You have unlocked the Susanoo," he murmured. "But it will avail you little in the end."

Another blast of force. I let out a cry of agony as the massive pressure pushed me into the back of the Susanoo's ribcage for a single, eternal instant, before the pressure let up, leaving me gasping for air, with bloody spit dribbling down my cheeks.

"Did you presume to battle me? Did you presume to _judge_ me, Sasuke?" he asked. "Did your new power truly make you so arrogant as to believe that you could _defeat_ me?"

I screamed as the next wave of force struck me. The ribcage cracked as I desperately fed my Susanoo more power, trying to keep the defense active, trying to hold Pain off for just a few more moments.

"I was _born_ with the power of God," Pain declared. "In pursuit of peace, I have killed thousands, and walked over entire _mountains_ of corpses."

I couldn't scream this time. My throat was too hoarse, my entire being too consumed by pain to even produce that token effort any longer.

"I have stepped over the body of my dearest friend, who sacrificed himself so that I could continue to walk towards peace."

The ribs of my Susanoo broke into shards, caving inwards with the next Shinra Tensei, now forming a sort of twisted mirror to the state of their counterparts within my own body. The earth around me cratered further, pushing me further and further in.

"I have crushed nations, destroyed tyrants, defeated even the bijuu themselves in pursuit of my goal."

The Susanoo _shattered _to pieces, leaving me defenseless, bloody, unable to even move from the agony.

Pain stepped forward, palm pointing at my face, ready to deliver the final blow.

"Tell me, Uchiha Sasuke. Do you comprehend what this means?"

I stared into the god's eyes, looking for something, anything.

But they were as dead as ever. Nothing. Nothing at all.

Then, just as despair began to overwhelm me, just as I was about to give up, to give _in_, I felt it.

Just out of the corner of my senses, a presence which had not been there a moment before.

A presence that was now moving, heading straight towards us, tearing through buildings, ripping apart pieces of rubble, ignoring everything in its path in its mad rush to get to where we, no, where _I_ was.

I smirked.

It had taken him long enough.

"Yes," I whispered.

For a moment the world stood still, as if teetering on the edge of my next words.

"_You never learn_."

Naruto's fist collided with the side of Pain's face with bone-crunching force.

And the God _flew_.


	17. All for Konoha

Interlude: All for Konoha

I drew my blade from the corpse of the messenger toad. The creature was still leaking its blood all over the floor.

"So, instead of convincing Tsunade, she brought them over to her side instead…"

Worthless. Even Homura and Koharu were just failures in the end. It seemed that I would have to do everything myself.

A sudden presence appeared behind me. I did not turn, keeping my eyes fixed out over the village.

"Danzo-sama," the Ne agent addressed my back. "Uchiha Sasuke is in the village."

I blinked.

Had Itachi's younger sibling returned, then? To this village which his brother had sacrificed so much to protect?

What was he planning?

My contemplative pause cued the agent to continue speaking. "He is defending the village from Pain."

I felt a faint sneer curl my lips. Did he hope to win back goodwill with this pathetic stunt?

That ungrateful child. He had thrown aside Konoha for the sake of personal power, for the sake of his petty _desires_, and now he expected to be welcomed back with open arms?

Then, before my eyes, _it_ happened.

Black fire bloomed, racing across and consuming the sky. An inferno of epic proportion, shrouding Konoha in a dark, almost protective shadow.

The Amaterasu.

Had the boy unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan, then? That fell power? How?

So young, yet so powerful.

I felt a shiver run down my spine. Just observing the size of blaze, it was apparent that what Sasuke lacked of Itachi's finesse, he made up with pure brute force.

The younger brother, less talented, but with a far greater potential - _capacity_ - than the older had ever possessed.

Such dangerous eyes needed to be kept by a true servant of the Leaf, not a traitorous, whimsical _child_.

My course of action now clear, I addressed my agent once more. He had not even flinched at the sight outside the window.

"Is he alone?" I asked.

"No," he responded. "When I left, he was in the company of Hatake Kakashi's team."

Unfortunate. It seemed that assassinating the boy would be difficult if I wished to avoid leaving witnesses.

I would have to use more indirect methods, then.

"Dismissed."

The agent disappeared in a swirl of leaves, and I turned to the door

If I could not kill him myself, then I would have to use Pain to do so instead.

In which case having Tsunade send aid to the boy or his allies would be a detriment.

My bandaged right eye _twisted_, and I felt something like the echo of the beginning of a smile play across my lips.

Soon, the history of the Leaf would be forever cleansed of the last of that accursed clan.

I strode forward.

_All for Konoha._

**A/N:** The next chapter is actually already around 60% written, so hopefully, this chapter isn't actually the complete tease it appears to be at first glance. Hopefully.


	18. The Murderer's Guide to Sacrifice

Chapter 16: The Murderer's Guide to Sacrifice

Naruto wasn't even panting.

For some reason, that was the first detail that stuck out at me. Not the massive scroll he now wore across his back, not the coat lined with red and orange flames, not the two frog-like figures perched on his shoulders.

He had sprinted across the village at full-tilt, ripping his way through everything in his path.

And yet, he wasn't even panting. Not a hint of exhaustion anywhere.

With a frown, I examined Naruto's chakra. It was familiar yet… foreign. Like two easily-recognized tastes mixed together into something new, unknown.

The first was Naruto's own chakra, as bright and warm as it had been during our last meeting.

It took me a moment to realize what the other was.

The same sort of energy that had coursed through my cursed seal, that I felt whenever Juugo transformed.

But how?

My thoughts were interrupted as Pain, the soul-ripping body, spoke.

"It seems," he murmured, "that I have been saved the trouble of hunting you down myself."

"I was gonna say that," Naruto growled with barely-restrained fury. His left hand was at his side, twitching and spasming as if strangling an invisible throat.

There was no response. No hint of hesitation. One moment, the mechanical abomination of a Pain had been standing behind the soul-ripper, and the next, it was lunging forward, straight at Naruto, the same chain-sword it had wielded against me in hand.

I forced strength in my limbs, desperately rising to my feet, ignoring the sharp agony that my entire body had suddenly become with the motion, already knowing I would be too late.

I shouldn't have worried.

Naruto's clenched fist met the blade in an almost-contemptuous motion.

The weapon _shattered_, like it was made out of glass.

The Pain reacted instantly, leaning back unnaturally to allow the punch to sail over its head inches away from its face, even as its chest began to meld, transforming into a cannon of sorts aiming directly for Naruto's now-unguarded torso.

The sound of a fleshy impact and screaming metal rang through the air, and Pain's body folded further, its mechanical back and hips splintering and breaking as if from an invisible strike, the back of its head touching its own calves.

Then the body snapped in half like a twig, spraying broken circuitry all around.

The summoner's palms were already on the ground, two summoning circles spreading out beneath them. A gigantic rhino and ox appeared in explosions of smoke, kicking up a storm of dust as they charged towards us.

The two toads on Naruto's shoulders leapt upwards, and seemed to heave in large breaths, their bodies distending like balloons as they did.

They screamed, and I covered my ears at the headache the sound brought. The air in front of the two figures' mouths seemed to distort, rippling between them and their enemies. The two beasts, and Naruto's hands came up, forming a seal.

Two shadow clones appeared before my friend and charged the summons, grabbing them by their horns.

Then, roaring their battle cries, they _heaved_, and lifted the two oversized animals straight up, flinging them straight into the air.

Two gigantic toads suddenly leapt over the building, one wielding a massive tanto and the other, a pair of equally oversized katana. Their blades flashed in the air, moving almost too fast to see despite their sizes, and the summons plummeted to the earth in pieces, dispelling in puffs of smoke as they struck the ground. The two toads landed between us and Pain's bodies a moment later, cratering the floor beneath them with a resounding crunch blasting the earth around them up into a hurricane of dust around them.

I blinked.

I stared forward at the cloud of dust the summons had kicked up in their charge at Naruto, trying to pierce the veil with my chakra sense.

Nothing. Almost immediately, I realized what had happened and spun to face the broken body of the mechanical Pain, only to see it disappear in a puff of smoke.

"Tch!"

I tensed myself to spring forward and pursue the three remaining bodies of Pain, but my knee buckled underneath me as I stepped forward. I fell down on all fours, gasping in pain.

"Sasuke!" Naruto was kneeling beside me a second later. "Are you-"

"Don't… worry about me… idiot!" I gasped out. "Pain's-!"

"No," Naruto responded firmly. "I have to make sure you're okay first."

"Naruto-chan," one of the toads on his shoulder said. "He's right. You-"

"Naruto!" one of the gigantic toads before us cried out.

Pain's bird flew out from behind a nearby building, his three-headed dog bounding out behind it. The massive toads still standing before us leapt forward to engage, drawing their blades.

The one wielding the wakizashi blocked the bird's humongous beak, but it was pushed back to crash into the ground, cratering the asphalt for dozens of meters around him.

The other one, surprisingly, did not use the sharp edges of his blades. Instead, he smashed the pommels down into the dog's left and right heads while breathing in.

He spat out a bullet of water which struck the dog directly in its middle face. The head was gored, splattering open, blood and brains spraying around as the beast shot backwards, tumbling across the ground to smash into the side of a building across the way.

I felt something out of the edge of my senses and spun at the same time as Naruto.

It was difficult to describe, like a raw mass of chakra with no physical body. It took me only a moment to realize that its physical form was actually _present_. It was simply invisible to the naked eye.

"Look out!"

My warning was unnecessary. Naruto's fist shot forward unerringly, catching the invisible summon directly in the lower belly. The air seemed to ripple around the end of Naruto's fist, and then a shockwave of pure force blasted outwards.

The animal _flew_, lifted bodily off its feet, then fell, smashing through an entire block of buildings on the landing and sending debris raining around it.

At a crash from behind me, I turned back around to see that the bird summon was now lying at its feet in two pieces. The other toad was sitting on the gored figure of the three-headed dog, the beast straining to try and rise underneath him.

"Thanks, Oyabun, Gamahiro-san!"

That was when a third toad, wielding a massive two-pronged sasumata, fell to land atop the dog, his compatriot leaping aside at the last moment. One head was crushed beneath his bulk while the second was trapped by the staff.

"Ah… sorry, Gamahiro-san. You see, I lack grace…"

His compatriot laughed. "It's fine, it's fine Gamaken!" He turned around to face me and Naruto. "Where's Pain?" he asked.

"Forget about that!" the third summon, who I now recognized as the toad boss, Gamabunta, roared. "First we gotta deal with that dog thing! If we cut it to pieces, it'll just divide, so think of something qui-"

Gamabunta hit the floor with a crash as the massive canine disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Tch. Too late," He clicked his massive tongue. "Now we're gonna have to deal with it again!"

Naruto frowned, face scrunching up in concentration. "Pain's… already outside the village."

I blinked. How had he known that?

"In that case," I said, forcing my voice to remain steady, "We-"

"Sasuke! Naruto!"

I turned to see Sakura quickly running towards us.

"Sakura-chan!"

I tried to take a step towards her, only for my knee to buckle once again. Before I hit the ground, Naruto was suddenly there, supporting me.

I wanted to brush him off, but I couldn't muster up the strength. Instead, I turned to my other teammate.

"Sakura, the others. Are they…"

"They'll live," she said. "More importantly…"

She knelt before me, hands wreathed in green chakra.

With a force of effort which sent needles pulsing through my chest, I pushed Naruto off of me and moved her hand away. "It's alright. I'm fine."

I wasn't.

Then I felt a shudder run through my body. I brought my hand up to my mouth and let out a hacking cough.

It came away red.

Neither of my teammates missed that.

"Don't _lie_, Sasuke," Sakura half-snarled.

I ignored her. I, _we_, didn't have time to let her mother me. "Naruto, we have to go _now_."

He was already shaking his head. "_I'll_ go. You stay here with Sakura-chan."

"You can't win _alone_!" I growled, moving towards him. "Pain is too powerful! No matter how much stronger you've become since we last met-"

I tripped over Sakura's foot and fell to one knee, unable to hold back the shudder of agony that wracked my frame with the sudden motion.

I glared up at her, but before I could say anything, she spoke.

"You can barely stand, Sasuke," she said evenly, then shook her head. "If you go with Naruto now, you'll just hold him back."

I opened my mouth to protest, but this time, Naruto interrupted me.

"Have a little faith in me," he said, grinning. "I'm not as weak as I was the last time we met, and besides…"

His eyes hardened and filled with a sudden, uncharacteristic, murderous _fury_.

"That bastard is the leader of Akatsuki; he attacked Konoha," Naruto said, his voice growing more and more heated as he continued. "He hurt you and Sakura-chan. _He killed Jiraiya-sensei_." He was trembling now, teeth clenched, hands curled into fists so tightly that the knuckles were white. He spat out the last sentence like a loose tooth. "I'm not gonna let him hurt _anyone_ ever again!"

I blinked, the world swimming before my eyes. "I won't-"

A violent shudder ran through my form. My legs suddenly felt boneless, unable to even remain straight, let alone support my weight.

And I felt… wet.

I looked down.

Oh. That was a lot of blood.

Sakura was immediately at my side, holding me up, her medic's eyes scanning my form. Naruto took a step forward, the rage gone from his eyes, replaced by something halfway between concern and terror, but paused, then gritted his teeth.

"Sakura-chan, can you-?"

She glanced up and nodded. "Go."

"Dammit… Naruto… I won't…"

He looked back at me and forced a grin, that same facsimile of happiness that he had worn so many times when we were in the Academy. "Don't worry, bastard. I'll be back before you know it, and then…" he shuddered, then clenched his fist, smile wavering for just a split second. "And then everything'll go back to how it should be."

"I… I won't…"

He turned and leapt away, the three gigantic toads which had been silent all this time following after him. I reached out a hand, as if to pull him back, but my hand wouldn't reach.

_I… won't…_

Darkness.

XXX

I had expected a black and featureless world, as it had always been in the past.

But what I found was… different.

The darkness was still there, but now, there was something else as well.

There was a wall of shoji panels - rice paper moon pale and delicate, wooden frames black and dividing the panels into perfect squares. It was so long that its ends vanished into twists of darkness, disappearing from sight.

I was kneeling beside it with nothing beneath me and nothing arcing above me, sitting on polished shadow that felt cold as pride and hard as truth, and from the other side of the wall shone the only circle of light in the darkness - a smoky yellow glow as if from an aging oil lamp.

It was dim and wavering, but enough to see the shadow of a man that sat on the other side, and the blood red gleam of the whirlpool eyes in our otherwise monochrome world.

The shadow was vague. Its edges were uncertain. Its outline flickered and curled as tendrils of darkness stretched and snatched at the space around it, and it looked more often like a dancing flame than a man, and more often still like smoke battling a wind.

I met his gaze evenly, staring into his crimson eyes as he stared into mine.

"Will you continue to fight?" _he_ asked me at last. There was no pretension to it, this time, no cryptic word games. Just a simple, direct question.

I responded. "Of course."

"I do not know whether your body and mind will be able to handle the strain of more of my power."

A pause.

"I don't care."

Spiralling eyes bored through paper and narrowed to glowing slits. "So once again, you choose to sacrifice yourself to save those you hold dear."

And despite the wall I felt his voice like a cold breath of wind in my ears.

"Yes." I smiled. "It seems that, in the end, I really am just like Itachi."

The shadow man flickered, dark tongues of fire seethed, and silence stretched bitterly between us.

"Yes," the eyes burned, "yes, you are, and you both make the same shortsighted decisions, weakening yourselves to protect others."

I stared him down. "This is the first time you've ever criticized my chosen course of action. Why?"

"Why? Why? You ask me why? Because I believed that if you were free to make your own choices, you would learn from your errors." The voice didn't snap, but it tightened like a wire and its bite was cruel. "Such is the way with the young - they will not heed the warnings of their elders. They must repeat their mistakes, and discover for themselves, and so I gave you the freedom to do so - freedom to make the wrong choices, as you so wanted, but what I cannot forgive," the voice dropped to a hiss, "is when you throw those lessons aside, when you forget all that your own past has taught you to pursue a childish ideal of the present!"

"_Childish_?" I snarled. "What-"

"Yes, childish - and you ask me why I criticize you like a child asking to be led by the hand! A spoiled child, it seems."

I felt my jaw clench. "It seems that you have nothing useful to give me. I-"

"You will stay and _listen_."

"No, I -" The cold dark beneath me was suddenly no longer empty, but thick with snaking threads of shadow, that climbed up my legs and coiled about my wrists like vines. I struggled. I couldn't move. There was no waking up from this dream. "Let go of me!"

"No. Not before you _remember_ the lessons that you should have already learned." The eyes dimmed and his flickering shape settled.

"Sasuke," he said, "do not do this. It is pointless."

I looked back into his spiral eyes, refusing to answer.

He sighed. "As Pain is now, even if you and Uzumaki Naruto were to combine your efforts, you would not defeat him. You will almost certainly die. At the very least, your eyes will not be able to take the strain." The bloody spirals vanished and reappeared. The shadow had blinked. "You will go blind, Sasuke."

I stared at him, at those red glowing eyes, at that shifting ink-blot shape, and for a brief moment I tasted a desolate sort of disappointment that almost felt bruising.

Then came the fury.

"What are you telling me to do?" I hissed. "You want me to sacrifice him? To sacrifice Naruto?"

"Yes."

"If you think I'll actually-!"

"_Think_, Sasuke!" The world around us seemed to explode, liquid darkness bubbling and erupting in a sudden burst beneath our feet. The light behind the wall flared. "A city wall is built from stone. A shield is beaten from iron. Armor must be harder than flesh. The protector must not only be stronger than his enemies, but be stronger than that which he wishes to protect. Sasuke. Right now, you still possess that capacity, but if you go to that battlefield, if you lose your arms trying to embrace everything in the present, then how will you continue to hold onto those things in the future?"

"But if I can't protect Naruto right now, then what meaning is there in having that power in the first place?" I shot back. "What's the point of saving all this power for the future when I need it _now_?!"

If I couldn't protect the present there wouldn't be a future to even think about. Why couldn't he see this? Why couldn't this other thing, all cold dry whispering thoughts that twisted and slipped through mine like the coils of a silken thread, know this? For all that he claimed to be similar to me, a part of me, why couldn't he understand? If he saw out of my eyes, why couldn't he see as clearly as I could what needed to be done!?

"Because you have others you want to protect!" The shape drew closer to the thin partition and its eyes glowed round and bright. "You have Haruno Sakura, you have Hatake Kakashi, you have Hozuki Suigetsu, Juugo and Karin! If you give up all of your power now in this doomed attempt to save Naruto, then what will become of _them_?"

"And what about next time?" I countered. "What will happen when it's Sakura, or Kakashi, or any of the others out on the battlefield _then_? Should I sacrifice one again out of some vaunted desire to protect the four others who would remain after? And what about after that? Should I keep giving up the things that I love until there is only one left?" I shook my head. "That doesn't _work_. None of it works unless I can protect them all!"

And I strained, pouring all of my mental strength into banishing the shadows that held me. I felt myself strain to my breaking point, then _past_ it. With a faint splash, the viscous darkness broke apart and sank away beneath me.

The shadow stared at me, probing, seeking… _something_. "You will not change your mind?"

"No." I stretched out my hand. "Give me your power."

"It will all be for nothing," he said, his voice fading, and I knew then that he was withdrawing, to somewhere deep and dark and old as instinct. The oil lamp light was going out behind the wall. "You will regret this."

"Perhaps," I said. "But not as much as you will if you don't _give me your power_."

Shock. I had the impression that he wasn't used to being defied in such a manner.

"You _dare_," he whispered, low and menacing, "to threaten _me_?"

I snorted. "You know as well as I do what will happen if you don't - and I don't need _me_ as much as you do."

The shadow flames stretched and curled. There was silence. It was thoughtful, heavy. I could feel the weight of it, like his gaze, as he contemplated, measured and ultimately condemned.

"You are serious."

"You're in my head." I couldn't help pushing him. "You should know."

Silence. When the Firstborn spoke again, I felt a sort of gentle, rueful amusement.

"You are a fool, Sasuke," he said, then chuckled. "Very well."

A crack opened in the wall, a slit from which smoky darkness poured out. I felt it wash over me, infusing me with strength.

But it wasn't enough.

I strode forward to that crack, and as I did, a hand extended from behind it.

It was all smoke and fire, constantly shifting. One moment, it was a gnarled claw, the hand of an old man, the next, five fingers and a tiny palm, soft with baby fat. Then it was long-fingered and calloused, muscled with a deadly grace - the hand of a youthful warrior.

I reached forward to grasp it.

"Be careful, Sasuke. My true power is _potent_. What you have felt so far is but a paltry fraction." He was smiling behind that screen. I couldn't see it, but I knew. "Do not let it consume you."

Then the hand caught mine in an iron grip, one which I couldn't have broken even if I had wanted to, and I didn't want to break it.

What I wanted was the biting surge of liquid fire that burned and froze in my veins, the electric shock of shadows that sang and exploded into lights, the sweet cold darkness as smooth as ice and absolute as a falling blade, and I felt all of that seep it into me, dissolving into my core, flowing from that shadow hand into mine.

The promise of a handshake.

And in the end, I would remember I wanted this.

Power.

Power.

Power.

_Power_.

I awakened.

XXX

Power washed through me, a wave of pure, all-consuming darkness. It invaded my veins, suffusing my blood, whispering to my nerves: A thousand points of agony that bored into my flesh and ate into my mind.

Agony that had not lessened since I had last been awake.

All power had a purpose, and this power, I understood, had one too. It was not meant to heal, to mend, to cure.

It existed to break, to rip, to tear, to slice, to _burn_, to destroy until there was nothing left but ash and bone dust.

I felt my lips twitch despite the pain.

Well, that was fine too.

My sword was lying at my side. I gritted my teeth and reached out, grasping its hilt. Then, I stood.

A thousand firecrackers lit up in my mind. With a gasp, I stumbled, almost falling. But before I hit the ground, I felt a sudden, reassuring weight at my side. Looking over, I saw Sakura's face, surprised and angry in equal measure.

"What are you doing?" she repeated. "You're in no condition-"

I stopped listening.

With a lazy, almost casual motion, I shook Sakura off and looked her in the eye.

They were wide with surprise and something else I couldn't place, and in that moment, I saw everything I needed to.

I saw myself in her eyes, caked in black and red, blood welling up past my bared teeth. She would take only an instant to perceive what I had, that I was still grievously injured and unwilling to negotiate.

She would try to subdue me, to hear what I had to say. Perhaps then she would allow me to leave if I convinced her, but…

Naruto. I had found Naruto.

He was lying on his face, pinned to the ground, riddled with stakes of inky darkness. None of them were close to his vital organs, but I could their substances seemed to flake and dissolve into Naruto's chakra, restricting him, holding him still.

And someone else was fighting nearby, whirling, graceful strikes lashing out from two ghostly lions wreathing their fists.

Pain was there. Three bodies contemptuously dodging every single punch, then hitting back, twice as hard, knocking that defender, a _Hyuuga_, I realized, off its feet with each blow. Each time, the Hyuuga rose again, but I could feel her - _Hinata_, I corrected myself as I recognised her - weakening every moment the battle dragged on.

I didn't have the time to convince Sakura.

I made my decision the instant she did.

My sharingan flared, weaving a genjutsu, even as she reached out, an aura of green chakra surrounding her hand.

I was just a thousandth of a second faster. The genjutsu snared Sakura, and her eyes rolled back into her skull. I caught her before she struck the ground, intending to gently lower her.

But then, I _saw_, and felt my breath catch.

There it was, the faint breath flowing through her nostrils, the rise and fall of her chest, the _pulse_ -in the gentle curve of her neck.

Slowly, inexorably, drawn by some unknown force, I reached out with my free hand to touch her cheek.

Then my hand moved further down, down and down, past her chin…

To her throat.

A shudder of ecstasy ran up my spine as I gently caressed that delicate neck. There was a striking intimacy in that, in feeling that pulse beneath my fingertips, in the knowledge that then, in that single, eternal instant, I held Sakura's life, her very existence in the _palm of my hand_.

There and then, I _possessed_ her in a way more intimate than any lover, I _controlled_ her in a manner more fundamental than her parents ever had, I _knew_ her more secretly than her closest friends.

She was _mine_.

An urge, so powerful that I almost gasped in anticipation, an urge make that possession eternal. All I had to do was just… **squeeze**.

My hand began to tighten, to give in to that beautiful, terrifying compulsion, to _kill_-

I dropped Sakura as if burned.

My breathing unsteady, I brought up my trembling hand to stare at it, then looked back down at her. She was lying in an awkward position. I reached out with that same hand. _To steady her_, a part of me said.

Only to be stopped as another part, one far more rational, grabbed that wrist with my other hand. I just stared for a few moments, nearly overwhelmed by disgust and fear.

I… I had just…

Words came back to me, the warning _he_ had given about his power.

"_Do not let it consume you."_

Just now, I knew that it nearly had.

I stared at Sakura for a moment longer, simply _shaking_.

Then I shook my head, turned, and started sprinting.

Whether I was running towards Pain or away from her, I did not know.

XXX

_Hinata fell._

I was only halfway there.

Snarling in fury, I pumped more chakra into my legs, forcing myself to move faster. _Dangerously_ fast. I felt my muscles scream and begin to break down under the strain of the overwhelming power.

_Hinata rose to her feet, chakra flickering. She stumbled forward…_

_And fell once more._

It wasn't enough. I wouldn't get there in time. I needed-

_She still wasn't finished. I could feel her, gathering up her strength. She couldn't walk any longer. Her legs had already given out._

_So instead, she crawled._

-a weapon. A weapon that would allow me to strike from a distance. A weapon that would let me-

_She moved, inch by painstaking inch. Pain watched, all of his bodies simply staring at her, at someone who had long since surpassed her own limits. At someone who still kept moving, despite that._

-save them. Not a shuriken or a kunai. It did not possess the necessary range. Not senbon or wires, they were too weak. I needed something like what I had possessed back _then_. I needed a weapon for-

_Pain spoke, and I read his lips. My mind filled in the details of the sounds all on its own, imagination taking the place of reality._

"_I do not understand."_

_Hinata ignored him, continuing to move forward, reaching out, and grasping the largest stake, the one which was stabbed through Naruto's hands._

"_Why do you oppose me, even though you are so weak?"_

_She pulled and pulled and pulled, forcing every last bit of strength she had into her arms._

_Pain remained, watching._

"_Even though-_

-_hunting_. Yes! That was it!

Both of my eyes twisted with power and flared. Around me, an ethereal violet rib-cage formed.

This wasn't all. I knew that. Itachi's Susanoo had been much stronger, much closer to perfection, and I knew that mine had that same potential.

I poured more chakra into my eyes, and felt trickles of blood running down my cheeks.

The Susanoo _grew_. From the ribcage sprouted two arms and a neck, rapidly expanding outwards until a monstrous, humanoid form surrounded me. Already, I could see Pain, a tiny figure in the-

_-you understand the certainty of your own death?"_

_She didn't stop pulling even then. Hands still straining, she slowly looked up._

_Not at Pain, but at Naruto._

"_Because…" she whispered. "I never go back on my word."_

-distance.

_One last smile._

"_That's my… ninja way."_

I poured more chakra into my fiery violet protector, and in its hand formed a weapon. A curved, sleek thing, strung with an unearthly cord. An arrow appeared, already nocked. The Susanoo's arm strained, and the cord was drawn back…

_Pain's main body, _the Deva Path_, something whispered in my mind, reached out with a cord of power._

_Hinata flew into the air, limbs splaying like a puppet with its strings cut._

_Then she came crashing down, smashing the ground beneath her like a hammer. I felt her bones crunch, even only through the chakra echo._

_She was fading._

_Naruto watched, horrified, as the summoner, the Animal Path, strode forward, raising another of those stakes above its head._

_And brought it down._

I released the bowstring.

The arrow shot out like a screaming bullet, breaking the remaining distance between me and Pain in the blink of an eye.

It smashed into the Animal Path's descending right arm, tearing it off at the shoulder like it was made of tissue paper, half of the body's right side going with it.

The Path soared through the air, and I readied another arrow, this time more smoothly than the previous. The gigantic violet arm strained once again, and the arrow blasted forward.

This time, however, Pain was prepared. The chakra absorber, the _Preta Path_, leapt in front of the arrow, bare hands reaching forward.

The arrow seemed to strike an invisible wall an inch in front of the body, and was consumed with a sucking noise.

All three of Pain's Paths turned to me as I landed before them, allowing the Susanoo to dissipate around me. I could feel my own breathing, heavy and painful, but I smiled nonetheless.

Only then did I allow myself to pause and consider my surroundings. Pain had brought the fight to a large, wide grassland on the outskirts of Konoha. There were few obstacles. The only reason I had been able to strike Pain by surprise was because I had attacked from behind.

"Sasuke…" I heard Naruto whisper as he saw me. I glanced in his direction, wanting to offer comfort, but as I did, as I saw him lying there, broken and beaten, as I saw the spark of hope in his eyes as he looked at me, I felt _it_.

A **desire**. An **image** of a time past, the Valley of the End.

I remembered the feeling of Naruto's bones crunching under my blows, of the feeling of his hair as I had repeatedly driven his face into the ground. I remembered **liking it. I liked that power.**

**It was my nature, after all. I hurt people over and over and over again. What was wrong in liking it? In enjoying the feeling of crushing those weaker than me? I-**

A feeling in the palm of my hand, the feeling of Sakura's throat in my grip, just before I had nearly-

A sudden rush of shame and fear. With a force of will, I tore my gaze away from Naruto, not wanting him to see that, to see the urge which had dominated my thought for just one instant.

And my eyes met those of the Deva Path.

The Animal and Preta Paths had spread out to surround me, warily shifting back and forth. I ignored them, instead focusing on the main body, the Deva Path.

Its face, still as blank as ever, revealed nothing.

But that wasn't important. Not when my chakra senses, sharpened with _his_ power, allowed me to _feel_ every pulse of my enemy's chakra, every flicker of emotion that ran through that foreign energy, focused around the spikes driven through the Path's body.

Not when I could taste his confusion, his annoyance, and buried beneath all of that, so subtle I nearly missed it, the first smatterings of true fear.

After all, when Pain had last seen me, I had been broken. My flesh was torn, my bones were broken, I was verging on chakra exhaustion and I had lost a near-fatal amount of blood, wounds that would have taken even a skilled medic like Sakura at least a week to heal completely. I shouldn't have been able to _stand_ let alone arrive here in time to fight him.

Yet here I was, before him, still injured, but still able to fight, arriving just in the nick of time to stop him.

But Pain was not one to hesitate for long. With a casual motion, he raised his right hand to face me, palm straight out.

I felt his power reaching towards me and tensed, preparing myself.

Only for it move past me and lift something.

I sensed the air behind me shift. I leapt to the left, just in time to avoid the weight of Pain's massive drill-beaked bird summon, the Animal Path perched on its back. Its right hand was still down on its mount's back, and I could see the smoke cloud from the summon dispersing above it.

I caught the beak in the hand of my partially-manifested Susanoo, nothing more than a ribcage and one arm. The violet hand _squeezed_, and the beak shattered into fragments. The Animal Path leapt off of the summon's back as the Susanoo heaved and flung it through the air.

Before it hit the ground, I felt a sudden sucking sensation, and a chunk of the Susanoo was torn away, eaten almost before I could react. Allowing it to fade, I whirled and raised my blade just barely in time to block an incoming black rod from the Preta Path with my sword. With a motion, I unsealed a kunai from the bandage on my wrist and slashed at the Path's neck, attempting to sever its spine.

Its own arm came up and caught mine in a vice-like grip. Just as I started to feel the drain on my chakra from the contact, an abrupt pulling sensation tore both of us off our feet and flung us back.

I slashed once more, trying to cut through the body's neck, but its hand came up, catching the edge of the blade on its knuckles. The razor-sharp sword cut through skin but didn't penetrate through bone.

Then we jerked to a stop in midair. The Preta Path released me, and I felt fingers on the back of my head. I frantically struggled to bring up the Susanoo, but before I could even reactivate my sharingan, my face was slammed into the floor and my world exploded in streaks of red and black.

Suddenly, everything became hazy. As I tried to regain myself, I felt my hands, manipulated by the Deva Path's chakra, slam together in front of me. A second later, a black metal rod was driven through both of the palms.

I vaguely heard Naruto frantically call my name, obscured through the fog of muted agony that had become my existence.

I grunted and tried to rise, only to find that my body wouldn't respond to my commands. A sudden lethargy had stolen through of my limbs. It took me less than a second to realize the cause.

Pain's chakra.

It pushed down my own chakra to the core of my body and seeped into every part of me, holding me almost perfectly still.

I struggled, I thrashed, I tried to focus all of my strength into my arms, attempting to force them to rise just an inch.

It was pointless.

I felt black despair gnawing into my core, and redoubled my efforts, trying to fight it off, trying to stop the panic that welled up with it.

It was meaningless. Even my greatest effort only allowed me to shift my eyes up ever so slightly. And when I did, I saw Pain.

He stood above me, unconcerned at meeting my gaze. The edges of my vision were blurred, an effect which brought him into even more focus in the center.

A human standing over a beaten dog. No, a god standing over a ant. Dominant, victorious, and _strong_. So very, very strong.

And as he looked down at me, I saw something in those dead, judging eyes. Something I recognized all too well.

_You are weak_.

And when Pain saw that recognition in my eyes, of my death, of my _defeat_, he raised his hand.

I saw, but didn't feel my hand jerk, my sword torn from my now-limp fingers by a pulse of chakra, flying into Pain's waiting grasp. He raised the blade, and even without my sharingan active, I could see what would happen next. Pain would bring his hand down and my sword would pierce my body. I would die.

And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Here I lay, in the wake of destruction of things that were, with my best and only friend at my side pinned down and ready to be gutted like a pig. Naruto would come next. I had lied, betrayed, suffered and endured.

Pointless. All so pointless. In the end, this was all I was. No matter how hard I tried to protect, to hold onto what I loved, everything slipped through my fingers like sand.

I stared up, despairing, but still defiant, as if I could stop the blade just by glaring at it.

It didn't work.

The sword came down.

"Stop!"

Naruto's voice cut through the still air, a discordant note telling me I was still alive. It was fierce, passionate, _defiant_.

Pain froze, the glinting edge of the blade just an inch from my back. He did not turn to face Naruto, who was still on the ground behind him.

Naruto continued yelling. "It's just me you want, right? Leave Sasuke alone! I'll go with you willingly, so-"

"Shut_ up_, idiot!" I snarled. "Stop-"

Pain stood and dropped my sword to the ground. It landed with a muted clatter before my eyes, cutting me off..

He spoke, not to Naruto, but to _me_.

"I see," he murmured, voice rising slowly as he continued. "We truly are similar. But even then, you are not like me, Sasuke. Not yet. _That_ is why you still defy me. That is why you do not understand the necessity of what I do."

I stared up into his eyes, already knowing what he had seen, what he now planned to do.

"There is still something that holds you back from understanding me." His voice dropped an octave and returned to a whisper. "_Him_."

Naruto. My best friend, who I knew would continue to believe in me even if I turned on the entire world.

My second brother.

"You must experience what I did," Pain continued, voice now so low that only I could hear what he was saying. "You must lose what you treasure more than anything else. Only then will you truly comprehend what must be done. But…" He shook his head. "I am kind. I shall not force you to wield the knife, as I was. Uzumaki Naruto will die, but you will not be made to watch. Be grateful for that small gift."

Pain turned and started walking away.

"Very well," he declared, addressing Naruto now. "I shall do as you ask. Uchiha Sasuke shall live and you shall die."

I opened my mouth, trying to find something to say, to stop Pain. To stall him in the vain hope that some help would arrive.

"Why?" I asked. My voice sounded tired to my own ears. Broken.

Pain stopped walking, halfway between me and Naruto.

I felt a faint, shattered, pointless hope, and asked again, my tone sharper this time.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked. "Why are you taking Naruto?"

Pain turned back around slowly, ever so slowly. I felt his eyes examining me again.

Then, he spoke.

"I told you the last time we met, did I not?" he said. "I seek to spread the ideal of pain, of true understanding to this world. Uzumaki Naruto, or rather, the Kyuubi within him, is the means by which I intend to achieve this goal."

And at that, the flames of my rage, previously smothered by despair, ignited once more.

"_What_?" I spat. "That _thing_ is just an animal driven by rage and hate! It can't do anything but _destroy_!"

_Just like me._

"You are correct," Pain murmured. "And that is precisely why I need it and its kin." He spread his arms. "Using the nine bijuu, I shall create a weapon, a weapon to crush not mere individuals, but entire _countries_." He paused, and when he continued, there was an intensity in his words greater than any I had heard before. "And then," he said, "I will _use_ it."

I understood immediately, as much as I did not want to.

"Mutual pain," I whispered, echoing the words Pain had spoken to me during our first meeting even as those words took on a horrifying new tilt.

"Yes," Pain intoned. "A shared pain. A common experience of loss that will bring together all who are left behind, grateful that they do not suffer alone, fearful that they will suffer still. _That_ is how I shall save us all."

I stared at him for a long moment, processing, understanding, turning over his words and absorbing their echoes, and when I was done, I breathed.

"That's it?"

Pain went still.

"What?"

"That's _it_?" I snarled. "You want Naruto because you have the _arrogance_ to think you can _save the world_?"

"You…" Pain whispered.

"I don't _care_ about your insanity," I snarled. "But if you want to behave like a pathetic _child_, then leave us out of it! I don't want your _peace_! I don't want your _salvation_! Not when it's built on the death of my friend!"

"You selfish _child_," Pain said, voice as cold as ice. "It's because of people like _you_-"

I stopped listening. I didn't care any more. My rage, my hate for this creature standing before me consumed me utterly. If I could crush him, I would sacrifice anything, destroy _everything_.

But I was unable to move. My rage alone was not enough to help me. I needed power. Power beyond anything I had ever had before, power to _smash_ this hollow, arrogant man that stood before me.

_Well then, Sasuke,_ a voice whispered in me, gentle, mocking, _allow me to help._

And in the center of my mind, at the place of connection, the door between me and _him_ creaked open just one more inch. Power, dark and potent, flooded my veins, flushing out Pain's chakra like it was nothing more than a thin broth.

I pushed that power into my limbs, and sprang forward, sprinting full tilt at the self-proclaimed _god_. Pain raised his hand, channeling chakra through his form.

A bloody tear trailed from my left eye. The god's form erupted in a conflagration of black flames. An instant later, I felt the blast of burning ozone hit my face as the dust erupted around his feet, blowing the flames off of his body and straight towards me.

My right eye twisted, and the flames curved around my form, even as I sprinted, faster than I ever had before. I drew back my left hand, felt the bite of lightning in my palm, the shrill screams of a thousand chirping birds filled my ears.

I shot forward, faster than an arrow, and the air itself seemed to become something solid before me, a million panels of paper-thin glass, each shattering at a touch as I met my limits, and broke through them. The wind _detonated_ like a bomb, a gale of force blasting dirt and mud through the air at my sides. I felt my skin burning, the friction of the air on my body seeming to threaten to tear it off. The sheer power behind each step in my all out sprint splintered the earth under my feet, each leaving behind a foot-wide crater.

I reached the Deva Path in less than a heartbeat.

My lightning-wreathed fist blasted forward towards the Pain's face, but his hand was suddenly _there_, catching my wrist, stopping the snapping sparks an inch from his nose.

I saw a face in his eyes, in those dead, frigid depths - a wild smear of red, black and white; twisted, mouth curled in a sneer, a feverish, overbright reflection.

Was that… me?

My ears popped, and the air clapped like thunder. I watched Pain's face crumple inwards beneath the shockwave of my aborted strike. My knuckles shattered. I felt the bone shards crunch together in my fist. His nose gave way with a sickening _crack_, and his hand was torn from my wrist, only three of his fingers going with it.

He flew past Naruto, boneless as a rag doll, plowing into the ground eighty feet away, churning up mud and stone, and then _kept going_, tumbling and cartwheeling for another thirty.

Not even feeling the pain from my broken knuckles I formed a handseal which flowed into my mind, taking a place in my memory like it had always been there.

_Katon-_

I turned to see six of Pain's gigantic animal summons falling atop me, ready to crush me to pulp.

_-Gouka Messhitsu!_

I blew a stream of flames that billowed wide like opening jaws. With barely a whisper, all six of the summons were consumed, reduced to charred flesh and ash in an instant. The Animal Path sprung away towards Pain's main body just in time to avoid the same fate.

Whirling on the spot, I knocked aside a blow from the Preta Path which was aimed at my neck. I caught it by its collar and using my momentum flung it after the Deva Path.

The Animal Path joined them a moment later, cold, coagulated blood still leaking from right side of its body and the stump that had once been its arm.

I didn't follow. Instead, I turned away and sauntered back to my original position, tearing out the black rod still embedded in my right hand and contemptuously flicking it aside as I did. I leaned down and picked up my sword.

Pain hadn't moved, hadn't even tried to counterattack. He was observing me, reassessing the threat I presented.

Sword resting on my right shoulder, I began slowly, deliberately walking back towards them, towards _Naruto_, who was now staring at me in shock.

I ignored him, and spoke.

"**You call me selfish?**" I asked in a voice not quite my own. Then, still advancing forward, I laughed, a sound filled with no mirth, only hollow death, and the absolute will to crush and _destroy_. "**You don't know what selfishness **_**is**_**.**" Another mad laugh. "**Allow me to **_**show**_** you.**"

"S-Sasuke?" Naruto whispered as I stepped past him. His voice was trembling in fear. Not of me, I realized an instant later. Fear _for_ me.

"**Just stay there and don't worry,**" I said, not even looking at him. "**Soon, this will all be over.**" My eyes narrowed."**And then, all will know what color a god **_**bleeds**_**.**"

I stepped past Naruto and with a flourish, reversed my grip on my Kusanagi and drove it into the ground. I spread my arms, taking in my enemy's faintly blurred forms, and the smile on my face stretched further.

I felt the fear pulse in his chakra, fear which had surged stronger at my previous assault, begin to ebb, to fade, replaced by icy calculation.

"You…" Pain asked, speaking through his Animal Path. He seemed to realize that I was not about to attack. "What are you?"

"**If you're so curious...**" All I had to do was breathe, and I could smell it - the salt tang of iron, the sharp red promise - and see the sweet, slick curve of its flow. My own blood crawled and seethed and sang for it. "**Why not try to rip out my heart so you can study my corpse in detail?**"

I didn't even bother to hide the anticipation I felt. I _wanted_ him to try. I wanted to crush the hope from his body, to demolish him, to break this creature so _utterly_ that he would never rise again.

I could almost see the face behind the puppets frown. "You've lost your mind."

I laughed in his face, loud and long. A part of me distantly noted that it didn't sound like me, sounded more like an animal, some creature that howled senselessly at moons and demanded replies.

"**And this **_**matters**_**?**" No, it didn't. None of this mattered. I shook my head. "**But enough of this. If you will not come here…**"

My hands came together in a single seal. I molded chakra in my core, more than I had ever used before.

_Katon-_

"**Then **_**I**_** shall make the first move.**"

_-Gouka Mekkyaku!_

The inferno that exploded from my lips engulfed the entire grassland in an instant. It swept outwards in a rapid arc, growing wider and wider. The three Paths were consumed by the firestorm as a four-kilometer wide cone of the earth was blasted to cinders in an instant.

Feeling the familiar dragging suction of the Preta Path's power at the center of the flames, and the two others right behind it, shielded from the blast, I smiled.

My right eye _twisted_, and suddenly, the spikes of Amaterasu that I had hidden within the flames shot out from the sides, aimed directly at the Deva Path, too quickly to dodge. I was already moving before the expected blast of outward force knocked the spikes away. I tore my sword from the ground, and my Susanoo manifested. Its hands slammed into the ground, driving massive fist-sized imprints in the cracked and broken earth and flinging me straight up.

The blazing fires and smoke choking the sky still hid me from Pain's view as I was flung straight up. With a thought, the Susanoo was behind me, grabbing me in its hand.

Then it whirled and flung me like a slingshot, straight at the three Paths.

At the same moment, my right eye flared again, and the black spikes of Amaterasu manifested once again, flying at the Deva Path from both sides. Unable to block both attacks with just the Preta Path, the Deva Path leapt forward.

Just in time to see me headed straight for it.

I felt Pain's surprise from his chakra. To his credit, he reacted almost immediately, forming a black rod in his hand, and readying it to throw at me.

I was faster. A kunai sailed through the air, knocking the black rod from the Deva Path's hand.

But Pain was prepared for even that. Less than a second before I reached it, it raised its other hand, revealing a second black rod, this one pointed directly at my head.

My sword met the rod in a short, resounding clang, and then, I was past him, twisting my body, and re-angling towards my _true_ target. Pain realized just an instant too late. The Preta Path began to dive to the side, attempting to avoid the sword now moving to bisect it.

I hit the earth, knees bent, and scree and rock exploded around me, but the Path had been just quick enough to get its vitals out of the way.

So instead of slicing it in half, my blade only separated its arm from its body. Still laughing, I twisted my blade, trying to cut through its waist, to destroy the body beyond any further use. Pain turned in midair just in time to prevent that strike as well, and instead of destroying the Path, I gashed open its stomach, spilling its intestines all over the floor.

Not enough.

I brought my head down just in time to avoid a stab from the Animal Path, and spun, catching another strike on my blade.

My left fist shot out and crunched into its cheek, spinning it around so that the hole where it's right arm had once been was exposed.

My hand shot out again, wreathed in lightning, and ripped into that hole. I relished in the tender resistance of the meat underneath my fingers, the crunch of the bones as my fingers reached deeper and deeper, seeking out their target.

I felt it then, under my fingers, gently pulsing despite the nature of the body it inhabited.

With a vicious jerk, I tore the heart out through the arm-hole. Smiling at my gore-covered fist, I began to squeeze…

Only to be forced to let go and jump away as another black rod shot past me, nearly piercing that hand again.

The Deva Path landed in front of the summoner, finally returning to the earth after its previous leap.

Behind the Deva Path, its face covered with dirt but disgustingly pristine in its lack of injury, the Animal Path slowly turned round to face me, its heart still dangling by its tangled vessels from the hole where its arm had once been. And behind even it, the Preta Path jerkily rose to its feet, ignoring the intestines spilling purple and white from its belly, dragging over the ground where it had lain.

"**Is this all, Pain?" **My mad smile, which had not wavered even once during the entire confrontation widened again. "**Is this the might of the man who claims to be a god?**"

I laughed, and noticed the thick mineral taste in my mouth. Glancing down, I blinked. I had started licking my gore-covered fingers clean even as I had been speaking.

It tasted of salts, oil and sweetness, and clung to my tongue. I finished with my ring finger before continuing. "**After I'm done here, I'm going to drag your corpse back to Amegakure." **My smile faded, and my voice lowered to a deadly whisper."**And then,** **I'm going to show them what their **_**god**_** really is. A weak, frightened **_**man**_**, hiding like a coward behind **_**puppets**_**. A petulant, thoughtless **_**child**_** certain that if he screams loudly enough, the world will agree with hi-**"

I was cut off as the Deva Path charged me, hand straight pointed forward. I felt the tug as the Bansho Ten'in seized hold of me and tore me off my feet. My Susanoo was around me immediately, manifesting its skin and swinging a black, flaming sword at the body in a blink.

Then the Preta Path was suddenly there, catching the blade, eating the flames and half of its length as it did. Its hand slid along the blade, absorbing it as it went, reaching towards me, a black spike already extending from its single palm, ready to impale me.

The flames on the remaining half of the blade suddenly shot out, curving around the Preta Path, heading straight for the Deva Path.

The pull on my chest stopped abruptly, though the forward momentum the pull had generated did not. Twisting in midair, I brought my sword up in one hand to block the black rod. With the other, I reached out and grabbed the its trailing intestines.

Then I was past it, ripping furrows in the dirt as I slid to a stop. The Preta Path, pulled off of its feet by the momentum followed a second later. Laughing, I jerked again, dragging the body closer, then reached down and tore what remained of its innards out of its chest as it struggled to rise. In a quick motion, I flipped it around on the ground, planting my boot in the small of its back to keep it steady, then wrapped its intestines in a slippery coil around its throat.

And then, with a brutal twist, I snapped its neck.I dropped its intestines, stretched and mangled.

In the next instant, I saw a shadow pass over my head as the Deva Path broke into a sprint, charging straight at me.

I didn't even bother to look up. The bony Susanoo manifested around me, two swords in hand, one aimed at each attacker. The Deva Path leapt aside just in time, but the tip of the black rod it held was partially sheared off, leaving behind a wickedly sharp and pointed tip. The other sword speared the massive summon above me. The Animal Path tried to leap away, only to be surprised as a _third_ hand sprouted from the shoulder of the Susanoo, shooting out to swat the Animal Path aside like a fly.

Then, I raised my sword and decapitated the Preta Path. The head flew through air, landing outside of the Susanoo. With a vicious kick, I punted the rest of its limp body after it.

Then I looked up and laughed and laughed and laughed until I couldn't breathe, until my throat began to ache, until I couldn't think of when I hadn't ever been laughing.

My eyes bled dark blood, and the Susanoo around me shifted further, growing larger and larger. Muscle weaved around the bones like vines. Skin grew over muscle.

But I could go further than that. I screamed, my eyes burning brighter and brighter as they did, and around that skin was born a hellish, violet set of horned, spiralling cloak-like armor. The two main arms of the Susanoo were hidden under the spiral, but the third emerged from above the eyes, clutching a cluster of black flames.

I fed power into my eyes, felt them flare, blossom, something surge.

The third arm traced a weaving pattern in midair, and with each short jerk, a single, flaming tomoe-shaped magatama flew forth, heading for the Deva Path.

It would be able to deflect one or two, and there was no way to dodge the rest. He knew and I knew.

So he didn't try to dodge or deflect the attacks. Instead, his hand stretched out, and grasped the Animal Path in a pull. The one-armed body shot past the black magatama, leaving a trail of summons in its wake. Each of the giant animals was struck by at least one of the projectiles. Each exploded in flames, consumed in an instant.

Within seconds, all of the magatama were gone, eaten by the bodies Pain had used to block them.

I looked forward, meeting the eyes of both of the Pains. I made no move to attack. Instead, I took one step forward, and another, inexorably advancing on them. With each step I took forward, both Pains too one step back.

I had won this fight. He knew it, and I knew it too. He couldn't stop me. I was faster, I was stronger, my eyes were-

My… eyes?

The world suddenly melted away as my eyes seemed to explode - lights, colours, everything burst in a supernova of searing pain. My eyes! I screamed as fires and agony shot through every part of me, falling to one knee, as I desperately clawed at my own face, trying to fight it, trying to make it _stop_, but it wasn't enough. I had hot coals in my face. I had livewires pouring jagged electricity through my ears and my nose, acid eating into my skull, consuming my mind.

And around me, I felt my Susanoo _waver_, as if the very foundation of its existence was being smashed to pieces. The demonic armor fell off, the skin underneath flaking off like rust. The muscles burned away a second later and spidery cracks spread over the bones.

The Susanoo broke apart with a brittle sound akin to glass shattering. I looked forward, trying to perceive what was before me, but it was meaningless. All that was left was a hazy, shaking blur, as if the world itself had lost its foundation before me. Objects collapsed into one another, coming together like a morass of ill-defined liquids.

I tried to rise, only to realize that the bones of my left leg were cracked and breaking beneath me. I flung out with my senses, desperately trying to perceive something, anything, of what was happening around me.

I barely saw the razor-edge of the sheared black rod coming. I pushed off with my good leg, trying to avoid the strike that would no doubt cleave my skull open like a coconut.

Splat.

I landed hard on my side, scrambling desperately to rise even as I did. I was halfway up when I felt the Animal Path, directly before me, bringing a black rod down at my shoulder. I brought up my sword in a clumsy parry that barely deflected the blow and left me unbalanced.

Then the Deva Path was there, this time, its fist heading straight for my face. I tried to bring up my free left hand to catch it. It should have been fast enough to at least block the strike, but for some reason, I couldn't feel or see my fist and my hand just wasn't _there_, and-

Suddenly, I was sailing through the air, what was left of my vision dyed red and swimming as I came down to crash heavily in the dirt face-first, skidding and spinning across the ground after I struck.

I tried to rise, first putting my weight on my right arm, and slowly rising. But when I brought down my left to support my other half, I fell awkwardly back to the floor.

Vaguely, almost tentatively, I felt for my left hand with the right, trying to touch what I now was unable to see.

Nothing.

With a growing sense of horror, I groped around, trying to feel my way up. I felt something my fingers touch something wet and bloody, connected to something hard and bony. My elbow, I realized.

And then, I understood.

My left arm was gone. It had been sliced off directly under the elbow, leaving nothing more than a bloody, leaking stump. I could still _feel_ it, but what was left was nothing more than a ghost, without any real substance.

And while this was happening, I felt Naruto's horrified gaze lingering on my broken form. His lips moved, and I could almost see in my mind's eye how he screamed the three syllables.

"_Sasuke_!"

But I couldn't form sound with my lips, couldn't respond to his words.

I sensed Pain pacing towards me, slow and deliberate. I forced myself to rise to my knees, stabbing the tip of my sword in the ground, then using it to slowly push myself up. I felt the blood streaming down my entire left side, leaking from the edges of my lips, from my nose, out of my eyes, from my ears.

Pain was two steps away. Even though I couldn't see him, I could feel him staring at me, daring me to try to strike. I gritted my teeth and tried to bring up my sword to slash at him.

I lost my balance halfway through the blow, falling forward to collapse at Pain's feet.

Struggling, fighting to shove down the animal panic screaming through every part of me, I tried to get up once more, to continue, but a vicious kick to my gut dropped me back as I did.

"It seems," he said. "That your body has broken before your will." The Animal Path joined the Deva Path's side. "It is a pity," the body continued, not stopping. "Had you used that power you just demonstrated from the very beginning of our battle, you likely would have defeated me." He raised his hand, a black rod forming in his grip. "Unfortunately, I cannot give you a chance to attack me again. You are far too dangerous."

He brought his hand down.

A rush of pure terror hit me like a tidal wave, and I forced every last dreg of strength into my body, flopping forwards just a few inches and biting back against despair.

So instead of my heart, the rod pierced my left lung. I felt blood flood into it, choking the life out of me. The world darkened around the edges, slowly beginning to fade away along with the last dregs of my consciousness.

Pain began to raise his hand again, unperturbed by my last feeble resistance.

An explosion of familiar, searing, rage-filled chakra exploded through the air, destroying the earth around it by the sheer force of its release.

A moment later, the vague blur I had been staring at seemed to meld into another, this one a burning red which almost hurt just to look at.

_The Kyuubi…_ I vaguely realized, _Naruto is…_

But I couldn't move. I had dodged Pain's killing blow, but the rod had killed me anyways. All I had purchased with my last act of defiance was a slow, painful death.

And as that death set in, as I felt my dearest friend turn into a monster right before my unseeing eyes, I had all the time I needed to contemplate the final cold reality of what had happened.

In the end, despite my every effort, despite everything I had done, everything I had tried to do, despite my hopes, despite my sacrifices, despite my desires…

I had lost

_Sakura… Kakashi… Naruto…_

_I'm sorry._

XXX

_Before, I had taken his hand in my own._

_But now, I felt his fingers digging into my throat._

_There is intimacy birthed of holding another's life in one's own grip. I understood that now, just as I had understood it when I had held Sakura's._

_But intimacy runs both ways. Just as the one who held me in his grasp understood me, I now understood him as well, perhaps for the first time since I had met him. _

_I felt his darkness, I felt his hate, I felt his lust for revenge and I accepted these things._

_I perceived his light, I perceived his love, I perceived his thirst for justice, and I accepted these things as well._

_I knew what he offered. I knew what he wanted, and I knew that he had wanted me to know of these things._

_I felt Ootsutsuki Indra, the first son of Hagoromo, lean forward. I felt his gentle whisper in my ears, the faintly mocking lilt, mixed with a deep, pervading anticipation._

"_Now then, Sasuke…" he murmured._

"_Shall I stain you in my colors?"_

**Glossary:**

**Katon: Gouka Messhitsu ** and **Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku**: Two high-level, wide-scale fire release techniques Madara used in canon. He used Messhitsu to incinerate the mokuton forest he created. Mekkyaku, on the other hand, he used to attack a division of the allied shinobi forces, and required the combined efforts of somewhere between dozens and hundreds of water release users to stop.

**A/N:** Tell me, Uchiha Sasuke. Do you feel like a hero yet?

…

…

…

Pfft. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Anyways, this chapter took a lot longer to write than expected. Hopefully it lived up to expectations.

Either way, many thanks everyone in the Awesome Authors Coalition, who helped me stay motivated to finish this chapter. In particular, the excellent Lord Darkly, who made me realize that 60% of the original version was crap that needed to be dumped, and the truly exceptional Zenthisoror, who actually helped me write something that was actually _good_ in its place.

See you next time!


	19. Breaking the Rules

Interlude: Breaking the Rules

The beast was free.

Even from nearly five miles away, I could feel the Kyuubi's primal roar shaking my bones, echoing in my blood. Explosions bloomed across the horizon, lighting up like miniature suns before vanishing as invisible shockwaves snuffed them out only moments later.

A battle between creatures that dwarfed humanity.

I felt a shiver run through my bones, one which had nothing to do with the tremors reverberating through the earth around me, one which I forced down immediately through sheer force of will.

Fear was unnecessary. Terror at the insurmountable odds facing me, unimportant.

I had to save my students, my precious comrades. I would not abandon them, no matter what happened.

I reached up and raised my forehead protector, revealing Obito's left eye, three tomoe already swirling within as I rapidly scanned my surroundings, searching for something, _anything_.

And then I spotted it out of the corner of my eye. A figure, female, sprawled facedown on a piece of rubble that looked to have once been a part of someone's floor.

"Sakura!"

I landed in front of her, immediately noting with a sigh of relief the slight rise and fall of her chest as she breathed in and out.

The second thing I noted was the presence, the flow of foreign chakra through her body. Without delay, I placed my hand on her shoulder.

_Kai._

Sakura's eyes fluttered open and she slowly pushed herself up, shaking her head as she did.

Then there was a massive detonation of force in the distance. The blast of wind kicked up by the attack hit us almost immediately, and Sakura wobbled and nearly fell back down. I reached out and grabbed her by the arm, steadying her. She blinked and looked up at me.

"Sakura, are you alright?"

She looked up at me and blinked once.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

The earth trembled, and Sakura's gaze flitted to the conflict still raging in the distance. Her eyes widened.

"Sasuke! Naruto!" She shot to her feet and spun to me. "Kakashi-sensei, we have to go! Sasuke, he-"

I was already sprinting towards the conflict.

XXX

We found them lying there, both of them facedown.

She was almost uninjured, except for a few scratches.

_He_ was pinned to the ground by a single black stake through his torso. His entire body was covered in a layer of viscous, half-dry blood, and even his jet-black hair was so matted with the stuff that it seemed the same, purplish-red color. His right arm was stretched out in front of him, palm facedown, the fingers a mangled, twisted mess. His left…

I looked away from my student's broken form and quickly, almost mechanically moved to Hinata's side, closing my sharingan and trying to hold back the sudden stinging in my eyes even as Sakura rushed to Sasuke's side in some desperate, doomed attempt to save him.

But even my own forced calm, birthed by long and painful experience couldn't push it all down in this case. I felt my jaw clench so hard I felt my teeth begin to give even as I picked the Hyuuga girl up, feeling the gentle rhythm of her breathing as I did.

He was dead. So soon after he had returned, so soon after we had _gotten him back_. He was-

"He's alive."

The curtain of pain that had begun to envelope my heart vanished, and I was beside Sakura in an instant. Quickly, as quickly as I could without hurting her, I laid Hinata down next to him.

There were tears welling in her eyes. Relief, anger. A bit of both. I could see her channeling that rage into her ninjutsu, the way she swept her hands over Sasuke's body, soft green light playing over the half-dry blood and painting it an odd purple. I could see her chakra pulsing, a violent effort to repair what couldn't be fixed.

"His lung's punctured," she said in a clipped tone, hardly any emotion, and for a minute I thought the Hokage had snuck up on me. One of her hands curled into a fist. "All of his ribs are broken. A couple of them…" she closed her eyes, moving her hands further down. "His arm, too. The radius and ulna are… gone. Just..."

I couldn't help myself. "How-?"

"Something's holding it together," she said, her breathing speeding up a bit. Her fingers came down, to inspect the area around the rod still impaled into his back. "All of the shards. The bones are completely shattered, but they're acting like they're intact. Some powerful chakra." She bit her lip. "It feels like… coal. Rough. It's starting to fade, though… No, wait. Not fade. It's…" Her gaze shot to focus on the black rod, and she spoke without looking up. "We need to get that thing out of him _now_. It's leaking Pain's chakra into his body, attacking whatever's keeping him from falling apart."

No hesitation. "What do I do?"

She brought her hands down to the base of the black rod. "Pull it out." I reached forward quickly and grasped it. "_Slowly_," she emphasized. "I'll try to knit the lung together and prevent further damage while you do."

I gave the rod a gentle tug, then another, harder this time.

It didn't budge.

Gritting my teeth, I brought out as much strength as I could safely control and pulled. Slowly, the black rod began to move. The green chakra wreathing Sakura's hands grew brighter and brighter and I saw beads of sweat begin to gather on her forehead as more of the bloodstained metal became visible, inch by inch.

And then with a sickening _slurp_, it came free completely, the wound knitting itself together immediately behind it. I nearly stumbled back a step, but caught myself.

Sakura didn't even pause to wipe the sweat from her brow, immediately turning Sasuke over and laying a hand on his chest, concentrating.

"It's coming back," she said, the suppressed calm from before returning to her voice. "That chakra that's keeping everything in place." She blinked and continued in a clipped, professional tone. "Several ruptured veins and arteries but… no internal hemorrhaging."

Her gaze moved to the empty space where his left arm should have been, and her brow furrowed. "He's losing too much blood. Only three to four liters left. Need to-"

She was reaching towards the arm when the earth itself seemed to buck under my feet. The tremor, more violent than any before it, flung me flat on my back. Wincing, I tried to rise, but was immediately flung away as the earth bucked me off once again.

My lips twisted into a grimace under my mask as I rose this time. The earth was still shaking, but this time, I channeled chakra through my feet, sticking them to the ground and maintaining my balance. A few feet away, I saw Sakura lying to the side, still struggling to rise to her feet, and Sasuke…

Sasuke was on his knees, slowly pushing himself to his feet. His hair hung down over his face, obscuring his profile, but I could still see.

He was smiling.

I should have been rushing to his side, trying to push him back down, telling him not to stress himself, that Sakura would help him, but something, something in that smile, something primal, roused an instinct long experience had taught me never to ignore.

_Run._

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura's desperate voice came from over my shoulder. "Where's Sas-"

She stopped, just as I had. For a moment, everything was still.

Then Sasuke reared back and laughed.

It was a euphoric sound, filled with a sort of perverse glee, a joy that was just short of madness. It was like the raucous cawing of crows, the high-pitched screams of a hyena.

It was _wrong_.

Slowly, the laughter died down, and the _thing_ lowered its head to look at the ground, the smile disappearing.

"I had almost forgotten," his murmur, a deep baritone, carried through the wind. "What it was like to be _alive_."

He brought up his - _Sasuke's_ - arm and clenched it into a fist.

Then he turned towards us. I felt Sakura stiffen behind me, and I moved in front of her, drawing a kunai as I did.

"You," I demanded. "Who are you?" Because it was not Sasuke. It _couldn't_ be.

He blinked, but his gaze did not shift. His eyes remained unfocused, staring straight ahead at… something. The only indication that he had even heard me was the slight quirk at the corner of Sasuke's mouth.

"Ah," he said. "Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura. Two of the people to whom I owe my heartfelt thanks."

"Thanks?" Sakura asked. "What…" she trailed off.

"Yes, yes." The creature wearing my student's skin laughed. "My thanks. After all, it is because of you that I was once again able to experience this euphoria!" His voice began to rise, and he brought his arm up in an encompassing gesture. "The feeling of dirt between my toes, the pounding of blood in my veins! The lick of the air on my teeth, the sense of the chakra all around me! The agony of injury, the _pleasure of battle_! Is there anything in the world greater than this?!" He paused, as if regaining himself, and continued. "And so, I thank you! If it were not for you, Sasuke would never have been pushed as far as he was during that last battle. If he had not tried so hard to protect you, he never would have had to draw so deeply on _my_ power. It is only because you were here, that he is even _alive_ now."

With a chill, I realized that the creature in front of me was being completely honest. There was no malice in what he said, only simple truth. He genuinely _was_ grateful to us.

"What have you done with him?" I snarled.

The thing tilted Sasuke's head, as if in confusion. "Nothing at all. He is simply asleep. I protect him now because no one else can."

"You _protect_ him? By stealing his body?" Sakura snapped.

A laugh, cutting in how familiar it sounded. "In this world, some things have paths they must follow." He stepped forward, and I had to physically force myself to not retreat. "Sometimes those beings lose their way on the path." One more step. "Right now, Sasuke walks along a path that I have set for him." Another. "And what you see here is simply a _nudge_ to keep him moving in the correct direction." Yet another, and he was standing in front of me, looking up at my face.

I felt my hands trembling, but refused to look away. I stared into his eyes.

And in those milky, blank irises, I saw my world _burn_.

There was a long stretch of silence, then-

"Sasuke…" Sakura whispered from beside me. "Sasuke is not your tool."

The creature's blank eyes left mine and turned to my student, a mere gesture, I could tell. He was already blind. "Oh?" he asked, sounding amused.

"He's not…" she said, voice growing more determined as she spoke. "He's not a puppet for you to move around on a set of strings! He's a person, and he's my - _our_ - friend and comrade!"

Sasuke's lips turned upwards into a cold smile. "Tell me, girl," he said, his voice like velvet. "Did you not wonder _why _Sasuke didn't come back to the Leaf after killing his brother?"

Sakura froze. "What…"

"Tell me,_ girl_…" This time, it was barely a whisper. "If a time came when you had to decide between Sasuke and Konoha, which would you choose?"

Silence, then…

"I…" Sakura whispered. "I would…"

The creature chuckled, then stepped forward and past us.

"In any case," he murmured. "It seems I have no time left to speak with you." I turned, and for the first time, realized what the creature wearing Sasuke's skin had been focusing on since he first step he had taken.

In the distance, a gigantic meteor floated meters above the ground. There was no sign of the Kyuubi, and I realized that, since the rumbling from before had stopped, there had been no sound at all from the distance.

An aura of violet flames ignited around the empty space where Sasuke's left arm had once been, and Sakura and I were struck by a sudden gust of wind carrying dust into our faces. An ethereal bone arm formed in the once-empty space, the same shade as the flames that had formed it.

_What… is that?_

The creature chuckled and raised its newly-formed appendage to the sky. In its fist, flames as black as night coalesced and began bulging, as if they were being molded like clay.

And a sword was formed, a sword that started out thrice my height, and grew and grew and grew until it dwarfed everything around it, until it seemed as though Sasuke's own body would be consumed in its heat.

It grew until it was as thick as the trunks of three trees put next to each other, so tall that it pierced the very heavens above us.

"Pain…" the creature whispered, low and eager.

"It's not good to play with other people's toys."

And he brought it down, directly on top of the planetoid floating in the sky, miles away from us.

There was a hiss like the sound of an entire lake being instantaneously vaporized, so loud it felt like my eardrums would explode. The black sword melted away like butter, spreading across the surface of the meteor like water in an empty bowl. The creature opened its ethereal hand, releasing the last of the flames.

Even from this distance, I could feel the intense heat of that fire on my skin. Pieces of the meteor superheated into magma began to drip off like molasses, only to be consumed by the black flames moments later. Dark clouds began gathering in the sky, and I felt drops of rain falling on my shoulders.

The creature raised its ethereal hand back up towards the meteor.

"Now then..."

It clenched the hand.

"_Kagutsuchi_."

Outwardly, nothing happened.

But with my sharingan, I saw.

The black flames which had washed over the surface of the planetoid _spiked_ inward like an iron maiden, thousands of nails of Amaterasu stabbing the creature at the center.

A sound unlike anything I had ever heard before. It was at once a shriek, a scream, and a roar, filled with agony, fear, and the pure, bestial _rage_. I collapsed to my knees covering my ears, trying to block out that noise, trying to stop it, but even from within the meteor, it was so loud, so piercing, that I couldn't block it out.

A sudden sharp pain, and half of the noise seemed to vanish. I felt a trickle of blood flowing from my ear, and realized that my eardrum had exploded. Glancing to my right, I saw that Sakura was similarly incapacitated, and in front of me…

The creature was still standing. If it had been affected by that scream, it showed no signs of it. Instead, its head turned slightly down, and I saw the side of its mouth. It opened, and I couldn't hear the words over the continued sound of the Kyuubi's scream.

But I could read his lips.

_Well then, Kyuubi. Shall we begin?_

It raised Sasuke's right hand, and an arc of lightning shot into the sky. I looked up, and saw as he melded the clouds, and seized control of the storm.

A beast emerged from the clouds, wicked teeth playing over a draconic face. It roared, and the clouds roared with it, drowning out even the Kyuubi's voice. Sasuke's lips moved once again.

_Kirin._

The hand came down like the judgement of a god, and the beast of lightning rushed down with it.

_Scatter with the falling raindrops._

The floating planetoid was _annihilated_. Black flames were blown away, scattered across the sky, and I saw the Kyuubi emerge from within the resulting cloud of dust, plummeting to the earth.

The creature wearing Sasuke's flesh brought up its ethereal left arm, and the scattered black flames suddenly stopped in midair, and began rushing towards the falling beast. They rippled and began spinning and spinning around it. In less than a tenth of a second, the falling beast was engulfed in a vortex of black flames almost as tall as the sword that had been used to strike the meteor.

And then there was a _roar_. The simple air pressure threw up a storm of dust around the creature. The tornado of Amaterasu was blown away like cotton in the wind, strewn across the once-lush earth and continuing to burn away at the very soil where it landed.

The roar subsided, and the beast turned.

It was looking straight at us.

I brought my hands away from my ears and slowly stood. At my side, Sakura did the same. I glanced at the Kyuubi, then at the other beast, the one still wearing Sasuke like a suit of meat.

It turned its head, as if searching for something, and smiled. "So, he retreated in the confusion, Animal summoning Deva." A shrug. "Good. I would not want anything interfering."

It faced the Kyuubi.

"You've grown rather weak, _beast_," the creature said, smiling. "To think that one of your tails, even one that was merely half-formed, would be destroyed by _just that_… have you become complacent in the time I have been away?"

It bent Sasuke's knees, and the violet aura surrounding its ethereal arm intensified, then spread to cover its entire body. In an instant, there was a ribcage and two bony arms, along with a demonic skull surrounding Sasuke's body. Muscle weaved over its frame, and skin and armor formed over the muscle.

And then, it stood as a pair of massive, trunk-like legs manifested beneath its inhuman figure.

It chuckled.

"No matter."

Two swords, one forged of black flames, the other of ethereal violet, appeared in its hands.

"It is time to remind you who your master is, _Kyuubi_."

**A/N:**

Welp.

This took a lot longer than I would have liked. Sorry about that.

Also, Thyreus my man, that Kirin was for you.


	20. Carnage Symphony

Chapter 17: Carnage Symphony

_Hatred is a deeply contradictory emotion._

_At its core, it embodies opposition, the idea of fighting something that one hates, that one cannot forgive. A man who feels hatred slowly loses all inhibitions, all conscience, all basic morality as that hatred further consumes him. He is driven to greater and greater extremes to slake that unquenchable thirst, and even when he finally succeeds, he is left with only emptiness._

_And yet at the core of this lies the crux of the matter. For by allowing himself _to_ hate, a man grants the object of their hatred control over them, and as his hatred grows, that control too digs its claws deeper and deeper into him. By allowing his hate to possess him, he is, in effect possessed by the very thing he despises._

_Therein lies the contradiction. There are reasons for it, of course, from the nature of our emotions to the very foundations of our perceptions of the outside world, but then, those are not what interest me. What plagues me now, as I contemplate this fact of life is one, burning question._

_If hatred grants control, then would not a man who hates only himself be truly unfettered?_

- From the journal of Uchiha Madara, three weeks before his defection

XSX

I floated in a cloying, suffocating darkness. It assaulted me even as I sank deeper and deeper into it, digging its claws into my consciousness.

I wanted to fight and struggle against it, but…

I couldn't move.

Something was missing. Something fundamental, something that was absolutely necessary.

But what was it?

I tried to do something, anything, but my limbs…

My limbs simply weren't there. There was nothing to move.

I finally understood.

"I'm…" The words did not emerge from my mouth, for here, I had no mouth. They simply emanated from the darkness around me. "Not awake."

I reached out as I always did when I wanted to awaken from sleep, to grasp 'myself' once again, but it was just… so far away. Out of reach.

And that was when I realized.

"So… tired."

I had pushed myself too far, and this was the result. I was broken, probably spiraling down to death even as I lay here.

I felt like I should have cared about that, but I couldn't muster any effort. After all, what reason was there to save _something without value_?

Better to just accept the peaceful darkness.

Slowly, I lost what little consciousness I had. Even the abyss around me faded away, replaced by something infinitely darker.

And I sank.

XIX

I could see nothing but a vague blur around me, a pallette of indefinite colors. Sasuke had taken his vision beyond his limits even before I had awakened.

But even then, I could feel everything around me.

The forest which had once stood in this area was gone, replaced by a blasted hellscape of cracked, shattered, barren earth. The remnants of the black fire from my previous attack littered across the battlefield like tiny clumps of grass.

And the air pulsed outside of my Susanoo, buffeted by the movements of the beast facing me from a mile away. Cloying chakra, congealing around its twisted, seemingly-solid limbs. There were grains of dirt still clinging to the soles of my - _Sasuke's_ - feet, and blood dripped from the stump of his left arm now that the makeshift prosthetic I had been using before had been returned to its complete form, pattering down on the earth like drops of rain.

And there was pain. Such cutting, overbearing, inescapable _pain_. It ate my consciousness even as it kept me alert, consuming as it gave.

It was a pleasure I had not tasted in such a long time. The agony, the proof of being alive, even if only as a temporary facsimile.

There was a silence as I studied the beast and it glowered back at me.

And at once, the Kyuubi reared back, a gigantic orb of explosive darkness coalescing before its maw. My Susanoo's knees bent down and it sprang forward at a full sprint.

I covered half of the distance in less than a second, bringing up the violet sword clutched in the protector's right hand as I did.

Not fast enough.

The Kyuubi brought its head down and released the bijuudama. It came at me like the hammer of a god. An unstoppable judgment.

If it struck me head on, I would perish instantly, Susanoo or no.

In that case.

My smile widened and widened until I felt like my face was about to split apart. Without even slowing my charge, I channeled chakra, and the Susanoo raised its hands, one holding the blade of black fire, the other ethereal violet.

And brought them together.

The flames raced up the violet sword even as the blade's texture changed into something more jagged, something more vicious, expanding to five, ten times its original size.

And then I brought the blade down.

It met the bijuudama with a shriek like that of metal cutting metal. The sheer force of the collision blew apart half of the right shoulder of my protector andnearly stopped me right in my tracks.

I strained, a roar of fury tearing itself from my shattered lungs. The Kyuubi roared back, and my sword won against the beast's raw power. The bijuudama was split cleanly in half, even as the blade dissolved into particles of light in the Susanoo's hand. The two pieces flew behind me and exploded with mountain-crushing force.

I was ready for it.

My Susanoo leapt, and the the impact from the sudden storm of air from behind flung it straight forward at the surprised Kyuubi. Smoothly, the protector raised its left hand, while three arrows of dark fire appeared in the half shattered right.

In the time it took to blink, I drew and fired all three of those arrows. They struck the Kyuubi in the face, and the beast screamed in rage, shaking its head and trying to clear its suddenly-obstructed vision.

It succeeded, just in time to see a violet fist smash into its face.

XSX

I sank, and as I did, I realized that I was not yet dead.

There was… something. Something dulled and weak, but _familiar_. An ache, an annoyance, a…

Pain.

Something within me reacted, and I latched onto it, onto the pain. I felt it clawing at me, trying to hollow me out even as it filled me up.

The darkness swirled, and seemed to shift.

It was a haze, vague, bright colors, and once made sharper and dulled by the void around it. A haze like a random splatter of pastels.

But that was it. I couldn't do anything more. I couldn't _be_ anything more.

For now, I was but a shadow.

XIX

The Kyuubi flew back, tumbling over and leaving small craters whenever it struck the earth. I could feel the gaping holes opening up in its body with each impact, each closing just as rapidly when more and more of its corrosive chakra bubbled out to fill the wound.

With nimbleness that belied its size, the beast suddenly righted itself, landing on all fours, sliding back. Another bijuudama began forming before its maw.

I rapidly manifested and fired another three arrows at its face, but this time, the beast was ready. One of the seven tails waving behind it flitted forward and knocked all of the projectiles out of the air.

I laughed and laughed and laughed, and the Susanoo began sprinting, a sword of violet coming into being even as I flung an orb of black fire at it which transfigured into a dozen whirling black magatama in midair. Another tail flicked out to expertly knock them down, but the projectiles exploded as they struck, spreading black fire all across its body as I neared. I drew back the sword with both hands for a savage blow.

It wasn't enough.

The Kyuubi's jaw snapped out and swallowed the bijuudama even as its claws shot out and caught my Susanoo's arms.

My eyes widened with the mad smile on my face. Fear and anticipation became one.

The blast of energy annihilated the Susanoo in a flash blinding to even Sasuke's blind eyes.

XSX

The swirling world around me rocked suddenly, and the pain sharpened. No longer dull. No longer just an ache. I could feel my crushed bones, my ruptured organs, the phantom of where my arm had been, still clenched in a tight fist.

And with those, I realized, that I could feel other things too. I could feel the limbs controlled by the broken bones, the organs that were ruptured, the pulse of a moving, warm body.

My body.

I was moving, I could feel that much. A thousand muscles flexing and contracting in a thousand ways, as I weaved through the air.

And I could hear. I could hear the roar of wind in my ears, the cracks of explosions and impacts, the sound of _battle_, one so familiar to me.

A sound that I had sometimes enjoyed, and at other times hated.

But more overpowering than even that familiar noise, I heard that mad, incessant laughter. That laughter which was so familiar yet so _different_.

That laughter which was pouring from _my_ mouth.

I tried to move, but nothing responded. I tried to close my mouth, but it continued moving. It was not like being paralyzed, but rather, like…

Like there was something _else_ inhabiting that which I sought to move.

"What… is happening?"

XXX

Above me, thunder raged. Below me, the nigh unrestrained fury of a tailed beast annihilated my strongest defense, then the earth underneath where it had once been for miles around.

I had barely leapt out of the way in time, straight through my Susanoo's head, leaving the ethereal warrior to be destroyed by the Kyuubi's hand.

This entire battle was a dance with death. Despite the flow of my Yin chakra in his body, maintaining its proper 'form', keeping crushed bones and organs operating even when they should have been destroyed, every movement threatened to tear what remained of Sasuke apart.

The last clash had shown that the Susanoo was pointless for anything other than attacking. A single strike from the beast, a single misstep in the heat of battle would lead to death.

A chuckle escaped my lips, ringing over even the Kyuubi's rampage.

It was _exhilarating_.

The beast heard my laugh and looked up. Another bijuudama began forming before its jaws, and I knew I would not be able to dodge this time.

Not yet.

Its teeth snapped out once again and swallowed the bijuudama whole.

Not yet.

It gazed up, beginning to aim.

_Now_.

My hand blurred, drawing out a knife with an exploding tag attached from the seal on Sasuke's wrist, flinging it straight down, weaving a seal as I did.

_Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu._

And one kunai became _ten thousand_.

A hail of projectiles smashed into the Kyuubi with uncountable muted explosions. The beast roared and brought up its claws to shield its face and eyes from the bombardment, and I reformed my makeshift prosthetic, weaving one more seal.

_Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku!_

The annihilating wave of flame washed over the Kyuubi, obscuring its vision, and I wove one more seal.

Then the beast roared, and the flames and remaining kunai were blown away. It looked up to see me still falling straight at its face.

It opened its mouth and fired a blast of energy. The insubstantial bunshin scattered like a mirage right before it was hit. The Kyuubi, seeming to realize what had happened, turned.

This time, it was too late.

My Susanoo's arms grabbed the beast's fourth tail and _heaved_.

The Kyuubi scrabbled at the earth desperately as it was pulled straight up and over, flung to the ground with a resounding crash that sent tremors through the earth for miles in each direction.

With a seamless motion, I formed two violet swords in the Susanoo's hands and brought them down, stabbing into two tails, pinning them through the earth. Then, with a force that cracked the earth beneath its feet, my Susanoo leapt straight up, drawing and firing nine arrows as it did. Five of them pierced the rest of the tails, while the other four stabbed its limbs, fixing the beast in place as the protector landed straight on its chest with a crash.

The beast roared again, and the Susanoo's fists rained down, pummeling its face into the dirt. Dozens of punches fell upon it, then hundreds. The Susanoo's hands were moving so fast that I doubted that even the sharingan could have followed their movements, and with each blow, the Kyuubi was driven further into the earth, its movements restricted a bit more.

I laughed and laughed and laughed, those laughs melding together with the Kyuubi's howls of pain. This was it. This was what I had missed for all that time. _This_-

An impact at the side, not strong enough to even crack the Susanoo, but enough to send it flying. My protector landed on its feet, sliding back a few dozen feet, and I turned my chakra sense back to the Kyuubi.

It was getting up, back on all fours, and I could feel _it_.

The eighth tail, still only half-formed, but rapidly coalescing into its full power, already swiping at the sword and arrows holding the others in place.

I laughed.

"So you're finally finished warming up?"

The beast responded only by forming yet another bijudama.

But this one was different. I could feel it, the power radiating off of it, the monstrous chakra.

"Yes," I said. "_Yes!_"

A sword formed in the Susanoo's hand, and I pointed it skyward. With a thought, the blade was engulfed in black flames.

No. Not enough.

Sasuke's right eye _twisted_, and suddenly, the thousands of small flames, scattered by the destruction of Pain's Chibaku Tensei, flared up.

Heat rose to the sky, and the stormclouds began to gather. Rain fell upon us, and my black sword flared with yet more heat, growing and growing once again. I poured more chakra into it than I had even when I had created the sky-splitting blade, but this time, the Susanoo sword did not grow. Instead, it remained the same size, compressing yet more and more force into a tiny area.

The Kyuubi's bijuudama grew larger and larger, and as it did, the eighth tail gained more definition, growing longer and thicker until it was almost the same size as the other seven. The Kyuubi too grew, becoming more defined, more physical, not just a mass of chakra, but flesh and blood. And as its power grew, the arrows and blade still stuck through it dissolved away, annihilated by the sheer force of its presence.

I channeled lightning into my Susanoo sword, and it shot into the sky, a thin ray of light heralding something so much greater. The form of Kirin flowed out from above the clouds, then shot down directly into the blade, infusing itself through the sword and flames alike.

There was so much power compressed in the Kyuubi's bijuudama that I knew that if it struck, it would destroy not just my Susanoo but the entire mountain range at my back. On the other hand, if my own sword struck, it would cut through the kyuubi and the earth beneath it like wax, sending out a shockwave that would unmake even the Village of Konoha along with the thousands of tiny chakras racing within its walls, miles behind the beast.

But I was not Sasuke. The destruction of Konoha would not stay my blade, no matter how much he wished it.

"_This shall be the final clash, Kyuubi!_" I roared. "_Let us _end_ this!_"

The beast leaned down. I stepped forward.

And suddenly, it froze.

I frowned. A trick? A final-

The Kyuubi screeched, and suddenly, its entire form distorted, like an insubstantial gas being sucked into a lamp. It was _pulled_, shrinking and shrinking until it vanished into nothingness.

I blinked. Once, then twice.

"What?"

XSX

There was taste. I hadn't noticed it at first because there had been only one, so constant in my mouth that it had simply been lost, but now I did.

Blood.

The pain had sharpened yet again. Now it stabbed, pulsing and snapping. It dragged me upwards, closer and closer to a surface I still could not see.

And with that taste, and with the pain it brought, I felt the first emotion. It was something I felt like it was my own, yet was also… external. Outside of me, _foreign_.

Joyous, uplifting ecstasy. Ecstasy at the taste of blood in my mouth, ecstasy at the feeling of bones held together only by invisible strings of chakra, pleasure at the agony of each breath through lungs that had been punctured, and still ached from the healing.

And then, it stopped. For a moment, there was nothing but total bafflement, something bordering on shock, but too controlled to quite reach it.

Then that shock _changed_. Confusion transformed into something that was not quite rage, not quite hatred. It was not something that burned, unlike everything else I had felt, but something that chilled, and beneath it, an undercurrent of…

Resignation?

XIX

My Susanoo fell away, and I dropped to the ground, stepping forward. The blade that would have overcome the Kyuubi was discarded to the skies, dispersing like a cloud of formless gas.

I could feel… something, at the place where the Kyuubi had been before. I stepped forward, moving towards it at a brisk pace.

A body. A bright chakra. There was something…

Something was _shifting_ within it. Not a change in form, but in nature, as if two liquids were being mixed together.

In an instant, it stabilized, and I _knew_.

I shot forward with a sudden burst of speed, straight at him, a snarl of fury twisting my lips, even as I spoke the name of the _betrayer_, the man whom I loved and hated more than any other.

"_**Asura!**_"

XSX

Something jolted and changed. I felt that sudden, bubbling fury rise to the surface. I could feel myself charging at the thing that _he_ hated so very much.

And then I could feel the chakra, I could feel the world around me again. I could feel Naruto-something was clinging to him, foreign, but he himself was unmistakable. I could sense him as clearly as I could feel the desolate ground beneath my feet.

As clearly as I could sense the lightning chakra that Indra was moulding along one arm, concentrated in a fist that crackled, nearly _burned,_ with suppressed power. He leapt up, fist outstretched, encrusted with lightning, aimed straight at-

XIX

The boy's eyes flickered open just as I began bringing the chidori down at his heart. I felt the brutal sneer on my lips twist upwards. _He_ had chosen at long last, but I would stop him, here and now.

I would end this before it could even begin, and _this_ time-

I felt Uzumaki Naruto's vision focus on me, heard his breathing suddenly accelerate, his heart pounding louder and louder. His chakra spiked, and muscles tensed, but it was too late. He wouldn't be able to-

My hand froze. I felt like there was a vice squeezing me, trying to _expel_ me.

And I realized.

"_No,_" I snarled. "Not_ now_! You _fool_! We can-"

XSX

"I… won't… let… you…"

His presence was overwhelming. His power was beyond anything I had ever seen.

But I would not give up.

I pushed at him, pulling at limbs, forcing "myself" back.

My hand resisted my commands-it wouldn't move back, instead tensing uselessly in place. But it did not move forward either.

The rest of my body was the same. Opposing pairs of muscles flexed, holding my limbs in place. Chakra clashed against itself, trying to take a definite form, but always failing. I was locked, unable to do anything at all. We were two halves in conflict with each other, and the result was a stalemate.

But it was a stalemate I would lose. Indra's power was all that was keeping me alive, keeping the pain from crushing my consciousness completely. His will was greater than mine, his endurance was greater than mine. For every second longer that I lasted, I felt more of myself slipping away. I couldn't-

XIX

"S-Sasuke?" I heard the boy voice as if from miles away. I ignored him.

"You understand _nothing_!" I snarled. "I'm doing this for _you_! Can't you see that?!"

The chakra in my fist destabilized, and I tasted the scent of meat roasting as my right hand was burned by the uncontrolled lightning. I ignored it.

"You cannot… let him… live!" The words were more difficult. I could feel myself struggling just to form them. Where was this power coming from, this _will_?!

"You leave me… no choice!"

XSX

Each moment, I thought I would fall.

Each moment, I held on for just a second longer.

Every millisecond was another flirtation with death, with failure. I was assaulted from everywhere, Indra's will bearing down on me from one side, unstoppable, inhuman pain from everywhere else.

But I refused to give up. Even if failure was inevitable, I would struggle to the bitter end. If I didn't-

The flow of Indra's chakra in my body suddenly weakened and the agony I had been experiencing, the mind-shattering, demonic _pain_ was amplified ten, then a thousandfold.

I couldn't remember why I was doing this. I couldn't even sense what was beyond the struggle. It wasn't a conscious thought that drove me forward, not something I could put into words. It was just an instinct, a primal, uncontrolled thing coming from the core of my being.

I wouldn't let him win, even if I was broken, even if I died in the effort. I would drag him down to hell with me if I had to. I wouldn't-

XIX

"_Damn you! How can you keep struggling, even now! Just give up!_"

XSX

In an instant between instants, I finally noticed.

Indra had removed his chakra from circulation in my body. All that was left was the most tenuous of streams, just barely enough to keep my corpse alive. He was trying to drive me down with the pain, to push me back to a corner of my own mind so he could do as he wished.

But that chakra which he had removed…

It was _still there_.

It was a pittance, nothing compared to the Firstborn's full power. Not nearly enough to defeat him head on, not even enough to make him flinch.

But enough for something else.

And so I reached out and took it.

By removing his chakra, Indra wished to show me what I was without him.

So I would show him what he was without _me_.

XIX

The chakra flow in my hand shifted and suddenly, the bones, bones which had been broken but held together by my power, suddenly fell apart.

"Wha-at?"

I felt a thousand tiny jerks, a thousand pulls and tugs, a flurry of attacks falling upon a hundred points at once. Attacks using _my_ chakra. Attacks coming…

From the inside.

He could not contest my control over his body, but he wasn't trying. He was instead disrupting it, destroying it, tearing apart his own being rather than letting me keep him alive.

"You… would go… that… far?"

I tried to stop him, to keep his organs working, to keep his bones together. The chakra Sasuke had taken from me was nothing compared to my full power. In a contest of strength, I would have crushed him like a bug.

But in the end, it was always easier to break a body than it was to keep it alive.

He only needed to fall upon one point to throw himself to the verge of death, and by the time I was repairing it, he was already striking once more.

I felt the frustration bubbling within me, the impotent rage at being made powerless despite everything.

But beneath that, there was also something else.

Pride.

There was nothing else I could do now. Sasuke had defeated me, a being far older and more powerful than he, and he had done it using my own power against me.

It was truly impressive.

With a soft, almost-sigh, I released my control, and I felt Sasuke tear away the rest of the chakra I had left circulating through his body.

I dropped down into his consciousness as he rose, and as we passed each other, I whispered to him.

"_You will regret this, Sasuke._"

I felt him bristle, to begin a retort, but I did not let him finish.

"_One day, Uzumaki Naruto will inevitably betray you. He will break your trust and make you realize the harshest truth in the worst way imaginable. He will carve your heart out of your chest, and in doing so, send you tumbling into the depths of despair. And in the end…"_

A wistful smile would have crossed my face, had I still possessed one.

"_In the end, you will realize that this day was not a victory for you, but a defeat for both of us._"

My consciousness was pushed down, further and further, fading away until I could no longer perceive anything, until I could no longer perceive even the concept of perception.

"_Sasuke…_" One last whisper, one which I knew he wouldn't be able to hear.

"..._I am so very sorry._"

I fell.

XSX

I dropped to my knees, Indra's last words still echoing in my mind. There was blood, leaking from my mouth, my arm, what felt like every pore in my body. The pain that came from arresting my fall with charred and blackened hand was nothing, almost a friendly reminder to stay focused.

I moved my gaze up, until my head was facing in Naruto's general direction.

"Hey… loser…" I chuckled, and coughed, letting out a glob of blood. "Are you… finally… awake?"

"Sasuke!" Naruto sat up, or I thought he did. Everything was becoming vague, undefined, even as I felt it all slipping away from me. "We have to get Sakura-chan here! She… she can fix this! You-"

"Shut… up… moron…" I croaked. "You… we don't… have time… to sit here…" Another cough. More blood. "It's…" I whispered. "It's coming…"

There was a roar of fury from the left, and both of us turned. All I could see was an insubstantial blur, but even then, I could feel it. A mass of chakra greater even than the seven-tailed Kyuubi had been. Something that would have trampled whatever defense Naruto and I could have offered at the beginning of this fight, when we were at our full power.

The last vestiges of Indra's memories floating through my chakra provided an image. A gigantic, monstrous humanoid figure, made of a material with a texture like that of rotting wood. Seven eyes opened and staring straight forward, hands and legs chained together.

"What… is that?" Naruto asked quietly.

"The Gedo… Mazo…" I tried to laugh but it turned into a horrible wet slurp of a noise. Naruto turned back to me, worry so evident in that bright chakra of his. "New home…" I continued, uncaring, "for seven… of the Tailed Beasts…"

Naruto stared at me. I could feel that he was afraid. He could feel it too, the sheer power radiating off of that figure, of the last two of Pain's Paths, crouching on its head.

He gently laid me down on my back, and rose to stand between me and the Mazo. His hands were clenched into fists at his side, trembling.

"Don't worry, Sasuke."

He channeled his chakra, and it _shifted_, mixing with something else drawn from the environment, molding itself back into that nature it had possessed when he had first arrived to find Pain about to kill me.

"This time, I'll be the one who protects everyone. I promise."

"_I won't go back on my word! Because that's my ninja way!"_

I smiled. He had grown, just as I had, but he was still the same, even then.

There was still one thing I could do. One last thing to protect my friend, one last sacrifice.

"Naruto…" I whispered, and he glanced back at me. "Look… into my… eyes."

His gaze met mine.

"Sasuke?"

And I dove into the Kyuubi's seal.

**A/N:** Man, two updates in less than a week? Who am I and what have I done with me?

In any case, many thanks to Fancy Face for his help with getting this chapter done. If it weren't for him, you guys probably would have been waiting for another month or two.


	21. The Murderer's Guide to Fear

Chapter 18: The Murderer's Guide to Fear

I could not see, but I knew exactly what was around me. The memories had been burned into my sharingan the last time I had come to this place. A sewer covered in a deceptively shallow layer of water. I could hear the faint sound of droplets striking its surface, sending small ripples across it.

And beyond that, there was chakra, restrained but still immense despite that.

In that chakra, I felt _hatred_, born of the purest rage, directed by a single purpose, and seasoned with brutal, naked violence.

"Kyuubi," I said, and the figure did not so much shift as it did coil, drawing back into itself, ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness.

**So this time it is you who comes, Uchiha. **I felt it push itself up to stand on all fours. **Why are you here?**

"For your chakra," I responded icily. "Naruto will need help to win this battle."

**You are correct in that much, at least. It seems the loss of your sight has made you more… **_**perceptive**_**. **It let out a deep sound, half growl, half chuckle. **But if Naruto needs my power, all he need do is come here and ask for it. Your interference is unneeded.**

I snorted, but said nothing.

It smiled, and my mind supplied the image of deadly, gleaming teeth. **Ah, I see. You intend to take it for yourself, not for Naruto. **A sudden furious snarl. **Foolish, **_**arrogant**_** little human. Do you think I will give **_**you**_** anything? You, who bears that chakra more ominous than my own, that chakra which is so like Madara's?**

"I expect you to _give_ me nothing." I replied, and raised my one arm, reaching out with my senses, probing the seal, searching for something I knew to be there. "The Mangekyo Sharingan possesses the power to control the bijuu. I will _take_ what I need."

**You intend to subdue me? In your current state?** It laughed uproariously. **And from where shall you obtain the strength to perform such a feat? From those burnt-out eyes? From that broken wreck of a body?** It quieted, and I could feel the smile on its face vanish as it realized. **No, that is not it, is it?**

Nothing. There were no weaknesses. Nothing other than pure brute force could weaken it sufficiently to let chakra through. And that was something I lacked right now.

Except...

**Ah yes, I see. It is that powerful Yin chakra of yours which gives you such confidence. That chakra which allows you to keep broken things like your body working as if they are undamaged.** The smile on its face returned, and I felt its amused contempt.** A power which truly suits one such as you, Uchiha Sasuke.**

And I realized what I needed to do. If there was no way to directly take the Kyuubi's chakra out…

Something that was half-sneer, half-smirk spread across my face.

"Enough talk," I declared in a voice as cold as a glacier. "In the end, you bijuu are all the same, mindless beasts, lacking in both sentience and purpose. And so…" I reached out with a pulse of chakra, crushed the beast's will beneath my own. "You require a guideto show you the proper path, just like any other _animal_." I stepped forward and the water rippled beneath my feet, sending waves to softly strike walls of meters around.

"The tailed beasts," I continued as I advanced, "are nothing but slaves. Slaves to the power of those descended from the Sage of the Six Paths!"

I kept moving forward until I was right in front of the bars of the beast's cage. So close that I could feel its power, too potent to be completely constrained even by the Fourth Hokage's seal, permeating the air around it, sinking into my skin.

"And so, Kyuubi," I said, raising my single hand up and clenching it into a fist. "I command, and you will _obey_!"

I stepped through the bars of the cage, and the torrent of chakra struck me like a tsunami. I felt it, moving through me according to my own will, seeping through my wounds, flowing in my blood, my chakra. A torrent of energy, greater even than what had been at my disposal when Indra had given me his chakra, power equal to what I had sensed within the Gedo Mazo.

Power that was mine to use as I needed.

_Yes, with this, I can-!_

**Such **_**arrogance**_**.**

My control _shattered_. The beast smashed the chains I had placed to constrain its will with nothing more than a contemptuous flicker of thought, and its chakra, still pulsing within my veins, suddenly flared with the heat of a thousand suns.

No, I realized, I had not _lost_ control. I'd never had control in the first place. The beast had laid a trap, and in my desperation, my overconfidence, my own stupidity, I had fallen straight into its jaws.

**Did you think yourself to be Madara's equal? Did you truly believe you could control **_**me **_**in that pitiful state?!** The Kyuubi roared furiously. I felt a long coil of crimson chakra wrap around my body and lift me up to the creature's eye level. More of its corrosive power rushed into me and I screamed in agony as I felt my insides burn like dry wood, my mind splintering like a shard of thin glass.

I had been a child idly yanking on a leash, thinking I had held dominion over the beast attached to it, until its patience was exhausted. And now I could only be dragged along. I was unable to convert this powerful, corrosive chakra into a form I could use, for the mastery Indra's power provided was only over the 'form' that power took, not it's nature, its 'life'.

**Your hubris is your undoing, **_**boy**_**! **It continued, and I felt scabs spreading across my skin, my body being torn open as more and more of that evil, poisonous energy rushed in. **I am a prisoner, but never again shall I be a slave! I will destroy you here, along with those accursed eyes of yours, and in doing so, I shall drive Naruto back into the depths of despair, until he has none left to turn to but me!**

Desperation, the desperation of a cornered bird with its wings clipped, impotent and worthless. I redoubled my struggles against the Kyuubi's power, but what use was there in redoubling nothing? I couldn't even slow the spread of its corrosive chakra, and because of me, now Naruto too-

"Like _hell_-!" A voice called from behind me, and suddenly, an immense bladed shuriken smashed into the Kyuubi's gut, rapidly expanding into an explosion of wind chakra that sent the beast flying away. It hit the water a hundred meters away, but didn't stop, skipping across the surface like a well-thrown stone for another fifty before it managed to regain its grip on the surface. The coil of chakra the beast had used to bind me vanished and I felt a hand on my shoulder. All at once, the poisonous energy I had absorbed from the Kyuubi rushed out of me in a torrent. I gasped, a drowning man given a breath of air. "-Is _that _happening!"

Another hand wrapped around my stomach and I was hauled over the speaker's shoulder. He spun and dashed straight for the bars of the Kyuubi's cage.

But before we could even make it halfway there, the fluid beneath our feet _shifted_, and a massive wall of amorphous, blood-like liquid shot up between us and the exit, forming a wall we couldn't hope to leap over.

**NARUTO! **The beast _roared_, and Naruto whirled to face it again, letting go of my feet to form a seal. Thousands of clones appeared in puffs of smoke, coming together to form hundreds of rasengan. **You will not escape me this time! Both you and that Uchiha are **_**mine**_**!**

And a tsunami of crimson chakra surged at us from where it was standing. The clones leapt forward, the orbs of rotating chakra in their hands spinning faster and faster as they were infused with that strange energy Naruto had used.

"_Senpou: Rasen Chou Tarengan!_"

There was a sound like a thousand thunderclaps sounding one after another. Two hundred clones were instantly destroyed by the sheer force of the Kyuubi's attack, another three hundred following a bare instant later. The wave of chakra barely slowed down. The other five hundred shot forward, each like a barrage of kunai, smashing into the wave, each one dispelling almost as soon as they touched it.

In a tenth of a second, there were only three left. An immense amount of chakra burned to buy us mere fractions of a moment.

It was enough.

Two of the clones vanished in puffs of smoke, and the last sprung forward, holding another one of those whirling bladed orbs of wind chakra, this one twice as large as the last.

"_Fuuton: Oodama Rasenshuriken!_"

He flung it like a giant shuriken. It sped straight at the wave of the Kyuubi's chakra, so fast that I doubted I would have been able to follow it even if I had been able to see it.

It tore into the center of the wave, rapidly swelling, consuming the poisonous energy that tried to devour it.

Then it _exploded_. The middle half of the wave of crimson chakra was blown away, and the sides collapsed back down into the water. Naruto let out a gasp, and I felt his own chakra… revert, the last of the strange energy he had melded with it evaporating.

Then I felt _it_ and my eyes widened. "Look ou-!"

A tendril of crimson chakra burst from beneath his feet, slamming into his throat and carrying him high into the air. Another split off from it and lifted me off his shoulder to hover an inch or two to his left.

The Kyuubi advanced.

**Everything within this cage is me,** it declared with a hint of vicious satisfaction. **Everything, from this body you see before you to the water beneath your feet to the very air you now breathe. All of it is permeated with my chakra, my **_**power**_**.**

It stopped, snout hovering an inch before us. I felt its hot breath wash over my skin, soaking into my body through my injuries.

**You lost the moment you stepped past those bars, **_**Naruto**_**.**

And thousands of coils of power assaulted Naruto's body, flowing in through his mouth, his eyes, his ears. A cloak of chakra manifested around him, and I sensed his skin begin _melting_, like acid was being dripped on it. The myriad tiny wounds appearing on his flesh started to close immediately as the same chakra that corroded his body began healing the damage it caused, only for them to widen further the next time.

The chakra cloak coalesced into a familiar form, that of a fox, and a single tail of crimson energy appeared behind him. Two more rapidly sprouted out, and Naruto let out a choked half-scream as the power not only began directly attacking his wounds, but burrowing inside of him, eating away at his body through its mere presence.

I heard, rather than felt, Naruto's teeth gnash together. "Don't… think it'll be… that easy… you damn fox!"

The Kyuubi chakra seemed to suddenly lessen as Naruto used his own chakra to forcibly suppress it. The third tail flickered and grew translucent, slowly beginning to shrink, the wounds on Naruto's skin beginning to close over as it did.

**I see. Your strength of will, at least, is no lie.** **But that strength stems from a desire external to you. One to **_**protect**_**. **Its hot breath washed over us, and a tendril of chakra reached out, grasping Naruto's head, and forcing it to turn.

To look at me.

**And so, I will make you understand. You cannot protect anything, Naruto. You have belonged to me from the very beginning, from the moment of your conception when my chakra seeped into your mother's womb as she slept. That day on the bridge when you first drew on my power, when you failed to stop your friend from leaving his village, when you lost yourself to rage when facing Orochimaru, when you gave in to despair when facing Pain, **_**all**_** was simply you falling further under my power, closer to your inevitable fate.**

It opened its jaws and something that was half-laughter, half-growl came out.

**Now, watch your friend be consumed, and once again give up on everything.**

The Kyuubi's chakra crashed into me once again, this time a hundred, a thousand times more potent than before. I had no strength left to raise defenses against its invasion, no power to resist. It washed into my veins, beginning to destroy me from the inside out. I couldn't even scream anymore, I couldn't even speak.

I had failed, and because of that, everything would be lost. I…

"Why don't you give up…" Naruto snarled, and despite the bonds holding him, he reached out and grasped my hand. The poison eating away at my insides washed away, into him. "On making _us_ give up!"

The flickering third tail flared and rapidly regained definition. I could feel the skin of my wrist, on the palm of his hand, burn away like dry paper. A fourth sprouted out behind him a second later.

"I… won't… give in!"

**You can still keep your mind with four tails of my chakra flowing through you? **I heard a hint of grudging respect in that growl, buried even though it was. **But it is of no matter.**

The pain was unimaginable. Every moment, I felt like all of my blood was being torn out of my veins and then poured back in.

But it was nothing compared to what Naruto was probably experiencing now. I had to help, no matter what it cost me, no matter what happened.

I tried to struggle against my bonds, but I had already pushed my body far past where it had any right to go. I couldn't even move.

I tried to mold the last of my chakra, but the torrent of energy still flowing through my body and out through Naruto's hand washed away my meager efforts.

I tried to probe around the chamber with my senses, desperately searching for something, some weakness, _anything_, but even that was futile. Everything beyond three feet from me was completely dark.

Bony protrusions appeared on Naruto's body as the fifth, sixth and seventh tails formed. He wasn't screaming anymore, but roaring like a beast, a sound of pure agony.

But even then, his hand grasped mine strongly. Despite everything, he still was himself.

**Your will is impressive, Naruto, to be able to resist my influence despite having seven tails of my chakra flowing through you. But...**

It raised its claw, and one last tendril of chakra shot out, attaching itself directly to Naruto's chest, to his _heart_.

**This is the end.**

A massive pulse of red chakra through that last line, and an eighth and ninth tail appeared.

Naruto released my hand, his body beginning to expand as muscle wove itself over bones, and skin began forming over muscles. His mind was almost broken, just a single tenuous thread holding it together. Just one more push from the beast and he would-

The Kyuubi raised its claw to Naruto's forehead, and growled.

**It is my victory, Naruto.**

"_No it is not, Kurama._"

A massive wave of pressure slammed down on the entire chamber. The Kyuubi was crushed down into the water, half of its bulk disappearing under the surface. I fell like a rock, striking and sinking beneath the surface before floating back up a few seconds later. Naruto landed next to me, and the chakra the Kyuubi had poured into him compressed until he was merely human-sized once again, swirling and pulsing furiously as if it were struggling with unseen chains that now bound it. It rippled, its form twisting and swirling, and for a second something in it, it's very nature _shifted_, coalescing around Naruto's skin like a flickering, burning cloak of light.

Then it vanished like a candle being extinguished, and the Kyuubi jerked.

**That-! **It bared its man-sized teeth. **No! I will not submit to you!**

"_I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to take Naruto._" The voice was… serene, gentle but commanding, tinged with the faintest hint of regret. Yet another wave of irresistible force smashed down on the beast and it began sinking further and further down."_I will be purifying the chakra you forced upon him. It will be necessary if he is to survive._"

The pressure continued to grind down on the beast, and I could feel its presence disappearing around me as it was pushed further and further under the water.

**Damn you! We were not created to be your tools! We do not exist simply to give you power when you need it!**

"_Kurama…_"

**Do not spout your empty apologies, hypocrite! Do not try to justify your sins against us! Do not ask forgiveness, for you shall receive none!**

Everything but its snout was now beneath the water.

**I curse you! I curse you and your brother to die a thousand times at each other's hands! I curse you to never find peace no matter how many times you return!**

The figure that had saved Naruto said nothing, simply watching as the beast finally disappeared.

_**CURSE YOU, ASURA!**_

XXX

I awakened, and was immediately awash in agony I couldn't even muster the strength to react to.

"Sasuke!" Naruto dove to my side. "Sasuke, are you alive? You-"

"You're… loud… loser…" I croaked.

Naruto clicked his tongue, not bothering to dignify the weak jab with a reply. "We have to get you out of here," he declared. "I-"

"Don't… bother," I said, knowing the truth already. The only thing that had been keeping me alive before was the last of Indra's chakra, chakra I had used the last of in my failed attempt to tame the Kyuubi. Now that it was gone… "I'm… already…"

"You can't know that!" Naruto cut me off, a tinge of desperation coloring his tone. "Not yet!"

I gave a wet chuckle that sent weak convulsions running up my spine. "It's… alright… Naruto. This wasn't… your… fault." The world was closing in on itself, black splotches appearing in my blurred vision. "Don't… blame… yourself for…"

"Why?" A half-choked sob, and I felt something warm and wet drip on my cheek. "You had just come back to us! You, me, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, we were all supposed to be together again, just like before! I was supposed to have _saved _you! Why-?!"

With a herculean effort, I raised my hand, clasping blindly, and touched something. I didn't know if it was jacket or skin it caught on; I had already lost all feeling from my fingertips.

"Don't… cry," I managed. "I… I chose this… to-" a pause as more blood flowed into my mouth from my throat. "To protect… what was precious… to me." I coughed, and felt a trickle of viscous liquid run down my cheek to stain the earth. "You still have… things to do… people who are… important to you. You can't…" _give up. Not_ "now…" I tried to smile, but couldn't. "Naruto…" _you need to_ "become… Hokage…" _right?_

Naruto was saying something, I could tell. I couldn't understand it. Not anymore.

I could feel the reverberations of the Gedo Mazo's footsteps. It spread through the earth and rattled already shattered bones.

I had always been scared.

Scared of friendship, scared of bonds, scared of the pain that losing those bonds would bring. I had lived a life ruled by that fear, always trying to be strong, always trying to display my strength to the world, but always knowing it had been just one more lie.

Because I had never been strong. Merely brittle, resolved to break before I would ever bend or compromise.

"_If you wish to kill me then despise me, hate me, and live on in an unsightly way!"_

So I had hated, knowing but never once acknowledging that what had birthed that hatred was simply more fear; fear that one day, my brother would return to Konoha to take everything from me once again. I had been ruled by Itachi's word for so long, ruled in a way that he had never wanted.

I had tried to shoulder everything on my own: to take all of the burdens of the world upon myself and selfishly push everyone else away, not caring how much it hurt them. I had blinded myself to the consequences of my own actions, lying to everyone, even myself, to justify them as _necessary_. As _correct_. As the _only path open to me_.

But now, as I lay broken on the ground, I realized that I wasn't scared. Not anymore.

Naruto… was strong. Not just in his skill as a shinobi, but in the strength of his heart. He didn't need me to protect him anymore. Perhaps he never had.

He would win, even if I weren't there, even if he was brought to the brink of despair once again, he would not cross it. Not while he still had things important to him.

My eyelids slid shut. I felt the difference instead of seeing it.

I was smothered in blackness, my senses having once again all left me. But this time I didn't struggle. My battle was over. There was nothing left to fight. No fear, no urgency. Just a gentle silence.

_Itachi…_

My breath stopped as my single remaining lung gave out at last.

_Are you proud of who I've become?_

I died.

**A/N:**

Many thanks to Fancy Face, Ser Serendipity, AlmostElectric and hellequin for their help with this chapter. Just one more left to wrap up this arc.

But first for some Young Love.

**Glossary:**

Senpou: Rasen Chou Tarengan - Sage Art: Rasengan Super Barrage: Naruto creates thousands of clones, all of which form Rasengan and barrage the opponent.

Senpou: Oodama Rasenshuriken - Sage Art: Massive Rasenshuriken


End file.
